NASA Completes Its Third Cessna Crash Test

Popular Science ^ | 8/28/2015 | Atherton

[Purdue77]

NASA Completes Its Third Cessna Crash Test.

Popular Science (8/26, Atherton) reports on Wednesday’s crash test of a Cessna aircraft by NASA as part of a study to try to improve emergency location transmitters (ELTs). This third test involved “a tail-first crash into soil, which flipped the plane but didn’t crush it in on its crash-test-dummy occupants so much.”

[TheRightGuy]

Did they have ELT’s in ‘78?

yup ... at least i know they were required safety equipment for offshore sailboat racing anyhow

[mad_as_he$$]

;-)

[Purdue77]

Any a/c will stall if you run out of airspeed.

[central_va]

A C-152 when you kill power with full flaps and TRY to make it stall you have to pull so hard on the yoke it is ridiculous. It actually helps to have the weight of someone else in the plane. Ballooning down the runway is a common in a C-152...

[Purdue77]

That assumes wings level. You can accelerate the stall if you dip one wing.

[central_va]

I actually think the C-152 bizarre slow speed flight characteristics plus being a difficult plane to land “nicely” make it a poor primary trainer. It is not a confidence builder at all.

[jaydubya2]

On a cold day those things never want to land!

[Purdue77]

I worked for Cessna in the late 70’s. Learning to fly thru their flying club was cheap, cheap, cheap. And, I didn’t have a choice of what I flew.

[NorthMountain]

I survived. My flight check instructor survived. And, the airplane survived.

Crash???

That was a GREAT landing!

[Teacher317]

Wouldn’t Cessna have thousands and thousands of crash test results already? They’ve only been around for 88 years.

[Purdue77]

Oh yes. Clyde had 13 before he learned how to turn his aircraft without crashing.

[central_va]

On a cold day I would adjust my aiming point for landing about 200 yds this side of the numbers which is a really stupid thing to do. But ballooning is a real issue even if you do everything right. The C-152 is a great sporty aircraft, especially the aerobatic version, which I flew in briefly, but a terrible trainer IMO ..

If you are thinking about flying pay a little extra and rent a 172, vastly superior trainer.

[RckyRaCoCo]

I trained in a brand new C172, superior trainer indeed.

...heh, too bad the trainee(me)wasn't worth a sh...

[Nifster]

Did not argue that....never said you COULDN”T stall it merely said it was hard to stall

[BobL]

“I conducted a crash test in 1978 with a Cessna 152 when I stalled it about 12 feet over the runway.”

12 inches is typically a bit better.