This helicopter had a hard landing at a NASA test facility.
(Credit: Video screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET)
We’re all familiar with car crash tests. NASA went bigger, much bigger, with a helicopter crash test designed to test new seats and seatbelts.
On Wednesday, the Marine CH-46E Sea Knight helicopter fuselage was filled with crash test dummies, hoisted up 30 feet in the air, and then dropped in a swinging motion. It was traveling at 30 mph when it was released to meet the ground from 30 feet up at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.
“We designed this test to simulate a severe but survivable crash under both civilian and military requirements. It was amazingly complicated with all the dummies, cameras, instrumentation and the collaborators, but it went well,” NASA lead test engineer Martin Annett said in a statement.
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