The comments from different people who were allegedly involved in the project seem to contradict each other. So I did a bit of hunting to find out what injuries the bears suffered, if any, and what their fate was.<p>I've managed to find the "white paper" referenced by one of the commenters: Impact Acceleration Stress, 1961 [1]. There is also a feel-good propaganda movie that you can watch, detailing the program while missing out that they killed the bears [2], instead saying that they went under a "customary detailed examination".<p>One bear died while ejecting, as it was suffering from hydrocephalus (build up of spinal fluid in the brain) before flying, and with the added stress of the ejection must have caused terminal brain injuries. One bear suffered laceration to the liver, attributed to being over-sedated. At least one bear suffered whiplash and a fractured pelvis.<p>It doesn't specify exactly how many bears were used in testing, but I counted 7 from the tests they did (6 ejecting from the jet, one on a sled), plus one chimpanzee ejected form the jet. I highly doubt there were hundreds of bears, they cannot have been cheap to acquire or easy to keep.<p>All the animal test subjects were killed and autopsied afterwards.<p>Robert Sudderth, the Project Officer that commented, corroborates this paper, saying that the bears were not used a second time. John H Watson says that no bears were injured, but that could be just that he wasn't told.<p>[1] <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=WTQrAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA92&dq=b-58+bear&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Fp_PUM3pNu-n0AHah4HwBA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false" rel="nofollow">https://books.google.com.au/books?id=WTQrAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA92&dq...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://youtu.be/-KLnqorLgDM" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/-KLnqorLgDM</a>
Those were innovative ejection seats, but sadly, similar style 'capsule' ejection seats failed during the ultimate test during the prototype XB-70 Valkyrie accident. [0]<p>In that case, the centrifugal forces generated by the aircraft going into a spin meant that the second pilot, Carl Cross, waited just a few seconds too long to initiate the ejection sequence, and his seat was unable to be retracted into the capsule for ejection, so he ended up riding the aircraft all the way to ground impact.<p>[0] - <a href="https://tacairnet.com/2014/10/27/crash-of-the-valkyrie/" rel="nofollow">https://tacairnet.com/2014/10/27/crash-of-the-valkyrie/</a>
The "Wings Over The Rockies" museum in Denver, CO, has one of these escape capsules, plus a little display about development and testing. The display does mention that they used bears in testing of the capsules.<p>If you're at all interested in military or naval aviation, you should visit Wings Over the Rockies. It's like nothing else.
Wow, do yourself a favor and read the comments section since the Project Officer, tracking antenna designer, a co-worker of one of the engineers, and a trajectory dynamics engineer for General Dynamics. They all dispute the one comment saying the bears were hurt / destroyed although the chimpanzee was slightly injured.
There is a historical reenactment of this at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfkNvOOiZ_8&feature=youtu.be&t=1m56s" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfkNvOOiZ_8&feature=youtu.be...</a>
Imagine being the guy trying to strap in a bear.<p>"Are you sure it's too drugged to move?"<p>"Yes"<p>"Its claw twitched... its humongous claw twitched."<p>"That's fine. Pick her up and strap her in."