[ILDiver]

Actually trux, if you watch the video, the tail does not lessen the impact on the front end. The forward movement is stopped by the friction of the tail dragging the ground and accelerates the downward motion of the nose.

As for airbags. All in all, these types of incidents are extremely rare. Adding such a system could potentially do more harm than good. Not saying it could not happen, but the stress on a system is a lot different. Will the system malfunction in a cobra with a rapid pitch and speed change? Will it blow out on a hard landing, or carrier? The systems in todays aircraft are so amazing even compared to F-4's. The 0-0 seats are unreal. It's easy to say watching that bailing out would have been the better option. But I'm not the one that was at the controls during those critical seconds making the choice with the information you have available in the same sliver of time.

*I love fighter aircraft, so I'm kind of adding to the thread to keep the discussion going, not bashing any idea just to be a jerk*