Dilbert Dunker

The Dilbert Dunker is a device for training pilots on how to correctly escape a submerged plane.

It was invented by Ensign Wilfred Kaneb, an aviation engineer at NAS Pensacola, in 1943–1944.

[1][2] Originally named the "Underwater Cockpit Escape Device," the device was known since its earliest days as the "Dilbert Dunker" in reference to Dilbert Groundloop, a World War II-era cartoon character in Navy aviation training videos and posters who is incapable of doing things right.

[1] The original Dilbert Dunker combined the forward fuselage of an SNJ Texan—including "all equipment in the cockpit that would hinder a pilot’s exit" (instrument panel, stick, and pedals)—with a 45 degree rail that sends the cockpit from a high stand at the deep end of the training pool; at the end of the run under water it flips over to simulate a water ditching.

The preflight student must detach the communication wire from the helmet, release the seat and shoulder harness, dive still deeper and swim away from the "aircraft" at a 45-degree angle to the surface for the purpose of assuming that the water around an actual situation has burning fuel on the surface.