NASA Experiments Onboard the Controlled Impact Demonstration

On December 1, 1984, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) conducted the first remotely-piloted air-to-ground crash test of a transport category aircraft. The Full-Scale Transport Controlled Impact Demonstration (CID) was the culmination of four years of effort by the two agencies. NASA and the FAA had many objectives during the joint planning and conduct of the Controlled Impact Demonstration. NASA's interest was primarily structural crashworthiness. The FAA's primary interest was the demonstration of an antimisting fuel additive's performance. Demonstration of improved crashworthy design features was a secondary objective for the FAA.

This paper is a report on the NASA experiments conducted during the CID. A portion of the preliminary structural loads data was released to the public at a Government/Industry CID Workshop held April 10, 1985, at Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia.