Development of Airframe Design Technology for Crashworthiness

This paper describes the NASA portion of a joint FAA-NASA General Aviation Crashworthiness Program leading to the development of improved crashworthiness design technology. The objectives of the program are to develop analytical technology for predicting crashworthiness of structures, provide design improvements, and perform full-scale crash tests. The analytical techniques which are being developed both in-house and under contract are described and typical results from these analytical programs are shown. In addition, the full-scale testing facility and test program are discussed.