The Impact Dynamics Research Facility (IDRF) is a 240-ft-high gantry structure located at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The facility was originally built in 1963 as a lunar landing simulator, allowing the Apollo astronauts to practice lunar landings under realistic conditions. The IDRF was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985 based on its significant contributions to the Apollo Program. In 1972, the facility was converted to a full-scale crash test facility for light aircraft and rotorcraft. Since that time, the IDRF has been used to perform a wide variety of impact tests on full-scale aircraft and structural components in support of the General Aviation (GA) aircraft industry, the US Department of Defense, the rotorcraft industry, and NASA in-house aeronautics and space research programs. The objective of this paper is to describe most of the major full-scale crash test programs that were performed at this unique, world-class facility since 1974. The past research is divided into six sub-topics: the civil GA aircraft test program, transport aircraft test program, military test programs, space test programs, basic research, and crash modeling and simulation.


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    Title :

    A Survey of Research Performed at NASA Langley Research Center's Impact Dynamics Research Facility


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    44th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference ; 2003 ; Norfolk, VA, United States


    Publication date :

    2003-01-01


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English





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