An Overview of the NASA Lift+Cruise eVTOL Crash Test

Introduction – NASA RVLT Project Impact Dynamics / Crash Safety Task
- Task Objective: “To improve the crashworthiness and impact safety of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) vehicle and provide
data to simplify the certification process. Efforts will include development of validated computational models of these
vehicles, as well as other impacting bodies such as birds and drones. Efforts will also focus on developing and evaluating
energy absorbing and crush properties of emerging and non-traditional composite materials and processes. Finally,
occupant protection will be addressed using computational models and physical assets as it pertains to all rotorcraft
environments.”
- Problem Statement: “There currently is a lack of data for requirements regarding the crashworthy performance of
UAM vehicles and impact loads generated by a bird strike. To address this technology gap, NASA will develop test
guidelines, adopt modeling methodologies demonstrating capability for ‘certification by analysis’, acquire vehicle and
occupant data on full-scale representative vehicles, and provide data/guidance to consensus standards organizations and
the UAM community.”
- 4 Main focus points
- The investigation of occupant injury using physical and computational assets
- The development of energy absorbing technology
- The generation of data from sub- and full-scale crash test data
- The execution of advanced finite element modelling techniques