Orion test article being released during airborne drop test.
A drop test is a method of testing the in-flight characteristics of prototype or experimental aircraft and spacecraft by raising the test vehicle to a specific altitude and then releasing it. Test flights involving powered aircraft, particularly rocket-powered aircraft, may be referred to as drop launches due to the launch of the aircraft's rockets after release from its carrier aircraft.
In the case of unpowered aircraft, the test vehicle falls or glides after its release in an unpowered descent to a landing site. Drop tests may be used to verify the aerodynamic performance and flight dynamics of the test vehicle, to test its landing systems, or to evaluate survivability of a planned or crash landing. This allows the vehicle's designers to validate computer flight models, wind tunnel testing, or other theoretical design characteristics of an aircraft or spacecraft's design.
High-altitude drop tests may be conducted by carrying the test vehicle aboard a mothership to a target altitude for release.[1] Low-altitude drop tests may be conducted by releasing the test vehicle from a crane or gantry.[2]
^"SNC building test schedule for Dream Chaser – Dryden Drop Tests upcoming". December 10, 2012. Retrieved March 31, 2013.
^"NASA Fact Sheet - NASA's Gantry: Past, Present and Future Asset to Exploration". NASA.gov. Retrieved March 30, 2013.
A droptest is a method of testing the in-flight characteristics of prototype or experimental aircraft and spacecraft by raising the test vehicle to a...
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fabrication demonstration Landing system demonstration (droptest and water uprighting test) Life-support air revitalization demonstration Autonomous...
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expended in test drops. The first droptest was conducted with L-1 on 23 July 1945. It was dropped over the sea near Tinian in order to test the radar altimeter...
Impact Testing ASTM D5276- Standard Test Method for DropTest of Loaded Containers by Free Fall ASTM D5277- Standard Test Method for Performing Programmed...
element analysis are also being used. Some correlations to laboratory droptests have been successful. Cushion design requires care to prevent shock amplification...
and landing testing and short low-altitude flights. ARCA has constructed a droptest vehicle for the European Space Agency intended to test the atmospheric...
in DropTests". MacRumors. Archived from the original on November 1, 2017. Retrieved November 9, 2017. Epstein, Zach (September 25, 2017). "Droptest confirms...
for the test operators. A composite-foam and hard-rubber test backing was developed as an alternative to address these issues. The droptest method was...
its tail number, 008) that had been converted to droptest aircraft. 008 dropped many supersonic test vehicles, from the X-15 to its last research program...
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and the combat bombs dropped on Japan in World War II Includes both application tests and research tests at NTS. When a test yield reads "< number kt"...
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Soviet resumption of testing after the tacit 1958–1961 test moratorium. Most of these shots were conducted with free fall bombs dropped from B-52 bomber aircraft...
could meet the 82nd's requirements. In August, the Army conducted an air-droptest of a Stryker M1132 Engineer Squad Vehicle weighted to simulate the load...
Carrier Aircraft, both with the orbiter attached and for a series of drop-test flights. ** Note 2: The durations listed count only the orbiter free-flight...
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