Thanks. I do remember seeing the in-cabin movies of the unhappy dummies that
were part of the study.
JB
From: Lee Duke [mailto:d...@rainmountainsystems.com]
Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2009 7:54 PM
To: FlightGear developers discussions
Subject: Re: [Flightgear-devel] airliner ditching miracle ... or not
I don't want to take sides in this discussion, I just wanted to share some
information about the Controlled Impact Demonstration (CID)--or as it was
known at Dryden, Crash In the Desert.
The story of what happened depends on who you talk to. I remember that the
FAA was not very happy with the crash. Dryden folks seemed to think it was
very successful. Having been there and somewhat involved in the early stages
of the flight test program, my personal assessment is that the pilot screwed
the pooch on this one.
The following is from the Dryden web pages:
Controlled Impact Demonstration (CID) Aircraft
In 1984 NASA Dryden Flight Research Center and the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) teamed-up in a unique flight experiment called the
Controlled Impact Demonstration (CID), to test the impact of a Boeing 720
aircraft using standard fuel with an additive designed to suppress fire. The
additive FM-9, a high molecular-weight long chain polymer, when blended with
Jet-A fuel had demonstrated the capability to inhibit ignition and flame
propagation of the released fuel in simulated impact tests.
Antimisting kerosene (AMK) cannot be introduced directly into a gas turbine
engine due to several possible problems such as clogging of filters. The AMK
must be restored to almost Jet-A before being introduced into the engine for
burning. This restoration is called "degradation" and was accomplished on
the B-720 using a device called a "degrader". Each of the four Pratt &
Whitney JT3C-7 engines had a "degrader" built and installed by General
Electric (G.E) to break down and return the AMK to near Jet-A quality.
In addition to the AMK research the NASA Langley Research Center was
involved in a structural loads measurement experiment which included having
instrumented dummies filling the seats in the passenger compartment. Before
the final flight on December 1, 1984, more then four years of effort passed
trying to set-up final impact conditions considered survivable by the FAA.
During those years while 14 flights with crews were flown the following
major efforts were underway: NASA Dryden developed the remote piloting
techniques necessary for the B-720 to fly as a drone aircraft; General
Electric installed and tested four degraders (one on each engine); and the
FAA refined AMK (blending, testing, and fueling a full size aircraft). The
14 flights had 9 takeoffs, 13 landings and around 69 approaches, to about
150 feet above the prepared crash site, under remote control. These flight
were used to introduce AMK one step at a time into some of the fuel tanks
and engines while monitoring the performance of the engines. On the final
flight (No. 15) with no crew, all fuel tanks were filled with a total of
76,000 pounds of AMK and all engines ran from start-up to impact (the flight
time was 9 minutes) on the modified Jet-A.
The CID impact was spectacular with a large fireball enveloping and burning
the B-720 aircraft. From the standpoint of AMK the test was a major
set-back, but for NASA Langley, the data collected on crashworthiness was
deemed successful and just as important.
Some very interesting video is available at:
http://www1.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Movie/CID/640x/EM-0004-03.mov
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