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magazine readers can watch a video about this NASA crash test by clicking the play button.


Researchers used the cameras as


well as onboard computers, with data from 350 instrumentation points, to record every move of the 10,300­pound aircraft and its contents. The heli­ copter's unusual black­and­white­ speckled paint job ­­ a photographic technique called full field photogram­ metry ­­ also aided in the data collection effort. "High speed cameras filming at 500


images per second tracked each black dot, so after everything is over, we can plot exactly how the fuselage reacted structurally throughout the test," said NASA test engineer Justin Littell. This was the first of two planned


at 30 mph when pyrotechnic devices separated the cables and let the fuse­ lage hit the soil at Langley's Landing and Impact Research Facility. "We designed this test to simulate a


NASA Helicopter Test a Smash Hit Engineers at NASA's Langley


Research Center in Hampton, Va., dropped an old Marine CH­46E helicop­ ter fuselage filled with 15 dummy occu­ pants from a height of about 30 feet Wednesday to test improved seats and seatbelts and gather data on the odds of surviving a helicopter crash. They used cables to hoist the helicop­


ter fuselage with its mock passengers into the air and swing it to the ground, much like a pendulum. It was traveling


severe but survivable crash under both civilian and military requirements," said NASA lead test engineer Martin Annett. "It was amazingly complicated with all the dummies, cameras, instru­ mentation and the collaborators, but it went well." The test was a collaboration between


NASA, the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army and Federal Aviation Administration. The fuselage hit hard. Thirteen


instrumented crash­test dummies and two un­instrumented manikins had a rough ride, as did some of the 40 cam­ eras mounted inside and outside the fuselage. Preliminary observations indi­ cate good data collection, which will take months to analyze.


tests using Navy­provided CH­46E Sea Knight fuselages. A similar helicopter equipped with additional technology, including high­performance, light­ weight composite airframe retrofits, will be used in a crash test next sum­ mer. Both are part of the Rotary Wing Project in NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. NASA will use the results of both tests in efforts to improve rotorcraft performance and efficiency. Researchers also want to increase industry knowledge and cre­ ate more complete computer models that can be used to design better and safer helicopters. The ultimate goal of NASA's rotary­


wing research is to help make helicop­ ters and other vertical takeoff and land­ ing vehicles more serviceable ­­ able to carry more passengers and cargo ­­ quicker, quieter, safer, greener, and lead to more extensive use in the air­ space system. 


18 October 2013


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