Star Wars: 10 Things You Didn't Know About The Imperial TIE Fighter
7. It Is Fitted With An Ejector Seat
Ejecting in space is akin to ejecting in the middle of the Pacific ocean: you’re a pinprick in a vast sea of nothing, the environment will leach heat out of you at a terrifying rate and you’ve got precious little to subsist on.
Which is why most TIE Fighter pilots opt to ride their stricken craft to a swift end. Even so an ejection system is fitted, proving that the Empire did not consider their pilots to be completely expendable.
Unlike the X-wing, which explosively separates the cockpit from the rest of the craft, thus producing an escape capsule of sorts, the TIE Fighter utilizes a system that would be familiar to any modern fighter pilot.
The TIE Pilot is strapped to a seat fitted with single-use, high-thrust ion engines. Activated manually or automatically, the ejection sequence first jettisons the cockpit hatch then lights the engines, launching the pilot clear.
As a fascinating aside, it is claimed that during the asteroid chase sequence in The Empire Strikes Back we actually see pilots ejecting, although whether this is wreckage or an actual pilot is a debate only George Lucas would be able to settle.