NASA Crashes Helicopters to Improve Safety

A cushioning device originally intended for space vehicles is now being tested by NASA on helicopters that have to make crash landings. Researchers believe this so-called deployable energy absorber (DEA) could save lives and helicopters in the near future.

To gauge the DEA's effectiveness, NASA intentionally crashed an MD-500 helicopter twice at its Landing and Impact Research Facility in Hampton, Virginia — ironically the same facility where Apollo astronauts learned to land safely on the moon. 

To set up both crashes, engineers raised the chopper on cables and then dropped it from a height of 35 feet (11 meters). The helicopter hit the ground at about 33 miles (55 kilometers) per hour, simulating a relatively severe—yet survivable—wreck, according to NASA, especially if the impact were dampened somehow. 

Cameras recorded footage of the crash, and more than a hundred sensors inside the helicopter collected data for later analysis. 

Both abbreviated chopper flights also carried three crash test dummies, similar to the ones used in simulated automotive accidents. A fourth, creepier passenger rounded out the crew: a headless, armless torso stuffed with squishy simulated internal organs. 

All of the dummies were wired with sensors to help researchers piece together the stresses that a real human body experiences during crash landings. 

The dummies held up very well in the first smashup done in early December. The DEA softened the blow of the first crash so much so that the chopper needed only minor repairs prior to another test run. 

A second crash—without a DEA—was performed on March 10; the helicopter and its dummy occupants fared badly. 

"We had minimal damage from first test, but we saw quite a bit more damage in the second test," said Karen Jackson, an aerospace engineer at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. 

In the aftermath of the second run, the bottom of the windshield shattered, several bulkheads buckled and the floor of the chopper protruded into the cabin, where the dummies suffered forces powerful enough to break human necks.  

NASA says the helicopter is too banged-up for a third test run. 

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