Why would the Discovery Channel crash an airplane on purpose?
Find out Tuesday, Feb. 4, at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor R. John Hansman will present “Crashing a Boeing 727 in the Mexican Desert” at 2 p.m. in the Reid Conference Center.
A highly instrumented, unmanned Boeing 727 was intentionally flown into the desert near Mexicali, Mexico for the Discovery Channel documentary “Plane Crash.” Hansman will describe the technical preparations, and how results indicated passenger survival varied depending on seat location and aircraft design.
Hansman will be available to answer questions from the media during a news briefing at 1:15 p.m. that day. Media who wish to do so should contact Chris Rink at 757-864-6786, or by e-mail at chris.rink@nasa.gov, by noon on the day of the talk for credentials and entry to the center.
That same evening at 7:30, Hansman will present a similar program for the general public at the Virginia Air & Space Center in downtown Hampton. This Sigma Series event is free and no reservations are required.
Hansman is the T. Wilson Professor of Aeronautics & Astronautics at MIT, where he is the director of the International Center for Air Transportation. He chairs the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration Research Engineering and Development Advisory Committee as well as other national and international advisory committees. Hansman has over 5800 hours of pilot-in-command time in airplanes, helicopters and sailplanes including meteorological, production and engineering flight-test experience.
For more information about NASA Langley’s Colloquium and Sigma Series Lectures, visit:
http://colloqsigma.larc.nasa.gov
