Safety
DOD may save historic NASA crash-test gantry
It took a flood in central Pennsylvania three decades ago to get NASA into the business of crash-testing airframes, and the siren call of the “final fronti

It took a flood in central Pennsylvania three decades ago to get NASA into the business of crash-testing airframes, and the siren call of the “final frontier” to get it out.

While the space agency plans to end its participation in the Impact Dynamics Research Facility (IDRF) located at its Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., in September, there is a chance that private interests or the Defense Department may step in to keep the trapezoidal structure testing the crashworthiness of new airframes.