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NASA Drop Test Supports Safer Air Taxi Designs

NASA Drop Test Supports Safer Air Taxi Designs

editornasa16 hours ago6 Views

A white aircraft body with small black dots is hoisted in the air by cables. There are several test dummies inside of the aircraft. The aircraft does not hang far off of the ground. Three workers with hardhats remove pink foam squares from underneath the aircraft. Behind the aircraft is a large white board to measure the height, which includes many black squares with small numbers inside some of the bottom squares.

An aircraft body modeled after an air taxi with weighted test dummies inside is being prepared for a drop test by researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The test was completed June 26, 2025, at Langley’s Landing and Impact Research Facility. The aircraft was dropped from a tall steel structure, known as a gantry, after being hoisted about 35 feet in the air by cables. NASA researchers are investigating aircraft materials that best absorb impact forces in a crash.

NASA/Mark Knopp

As the aviation industry works to design air taxis and other new electric aircraft, there’s a growing need to understand how the materials behave. That’s why NASA is investigating potential air taxi materials and designs to best protect passengers in the event of a crash.

On June 26, 2025, at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, researchers dropped a full-scale aircraft body modeled after an air taxi from a tall steel structure, known as a gantry.

The NASA researchers behind this test and a previous one in late 2022 investigated materials that best absorb impact forces, generating data that will enable manufacturers to design safer advanced air mobility aircraft.

Image Credit: NASA/Mark Knopp

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