HAMPTON, Va. — The successful crash test of a former Marine helicopter could help lead to safer civilian and military helicopters, according to NASA aeronautics researchers.
The full-scale test sent the fuselage and its 15 dummy occupants crashing into the dirt at NASA Langley Research Center’s Landing and Impact Research facility in Hampton, Virginia, at about 30 miles an hour.
NASA researchers will crash a 45-foot-long helicopter fuselage from a 30-foot height for the second time in a year — all in the name of safety.
NASA will bring a Martin/General Dynamics WB-57F high-altitude aircraft to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2014, the first appearance by a WB-57F at AirVenture, which is July 28-Aug. 3 at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh.
Based at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, the WB-57F operates in NASA’s High Altitude Research Program. [Read more…]
HAMPTON, Va. — Engineers at NASA’s Langley Research Center dropped an old Marine CH-46E helicopter fuselage filled with 15 dummy occupants from a height of about 30 feet Wednesday, Aug. 28, to test improved seats and seatbelts and gather data on the odds of surviving a helicopter crash.
![helicopter_prep_12[1]](http://3ukr694671p02fhcme3a1bsaiek.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/helicopter_prep_121.jpg)
NASA researchers will drop a 45-foot-long helicopter fuselage from a height of about 30 feet to test improved seat belts and seats and advance experimental techniques and crashworthiness data. The test is slated for Wednesday, Aug. 28, at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.
NASA’s Ames Research Center will host a virtual institute to solicit and foster innovative ideas that address technological challenges facing aviation and the U.S. air transportation system today and in the future.
Some pilots call it a “Get Out of Jail Free” card. Others call it a “Cover Your Butt” card.
But what the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) is all about is improving safety for all pilots. In our last print issue, we debuted a new feature in which we run a variety of general aviation-related ASRS reports, which differ quite a bit from the NSTB Accident Reports. Most tellingly, the ASRS reports are written by pilots, not bureaucrats, so you get a real feel for what the pilot was feeling and what he or she learned from the incident.
The Universities Space Research Association at Columbia, Md., has selected three astronomers to participate in the first scientific observations to be conducted by NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a highly modified Boeing 747SP aircraft that carries a 2.5-meter (98-inch) diameter airborne infrared telescope.
Naming researchers from the astronomy community is a milestone on SOFIA’s journey to become the most versatile airborne telescope in the world, said Eric Becklin, SOFIA chief scientific advisor. The flying observatory will begin its short science, or “first light” observations, early in the summer 2009 and will continue its program of celestial observations for the next 20 years, Becklin said.