A Perfect Crash 

Theresa L. Kraus, FAA Historian 

Fifty years ago, on April 24, 

1964, Federal Aviation 

Agency and the Flight Safety 

Foundation researchers 

deliberately slammed a 4-

engine DC-7A against a 

rocky slope at a high speed to 

cause “a perfect crash,” as 

they called it. The crash, 

which occurred at Deer 

Valley Airport (situated 20 

miles north of Phoenix, Ariz.), began a $190,000 test program dedicated to finding ways 

to prevent post-crash fatalities. 

Prior to the crash, researchers had placed 16 instrumented crash dummies, plus a doll to 

represent an infant, on board the plane and installed several thousand pounds of 

engineering experiments as well as recording equipment, including 20 high-speed 

cameras and 82 test circuits. The Army, Navy, Air Force, NASA, and private industry 

also had experimental equipment on the aircraft. 

The plane, guided by a 4,000-foot steel rail, moved down the runway at about 140 miles 

an hour. Its right wing purposely hit and then sheared off two telephone poles. After this, 

the fuselage unexpectedly bounced off a small mound on the runway and sailed over a 

150-foot high hill. Fire erupted from a break in the fuselage. Flaming engine parts and 

other aircraft components scattered along a path the length of three football fields. 

Twelve of the 16 dummies 

remained seat-belted in their 

seats as the plane came to rest 

on its left side. Surprised by 

the amount of damage to the 

plane, researchers were even 

more astonished that most 

passengers would have 

survived the crash. Using the 

data culled from the crash, 

researchers hoped to help 

strengthen items such as 

aircraft seats and fuel tanks. 
Interestingly, when the FAA released footage from the crash to the news media, the Air 

Transport Association was not happy. Stuart Tipton, the ATA president at that time, 

complained to then-FAA Administrator Najeeb Halaby that publically providing the film 

of the test would “scare the daylights” out of people already afraid to fly. FAA argued 

that the public had been well informed that the footage came from a scientific experiment 

and not an actual crash. Furthermore, the agency explained, the test showed FAA’s 

commitment to assuring passenger and crew survival during take-off and landing 

accidents. 

Despite ATA’s concerns, the public seemed to understand the nature of the test and 

anxiously awaited the next “crash spectacular” planned for early September. On 

September 3, FAA and Flight Safety Foundation researchers intentionally crashed a 

Lockheed Constellation at Deer Valley Airport. The purpose of this and the earlier test, 

according to FAA, was to measure the forces acting on commercial airplanes in a 

“marginally survivable” crash so planes could be designed for greater safety. 

In the second 

test, engineers 

remotely sent 

the Constellation 

down a 4,000-

foot runway 

where it hit a 

series of 

strategically 

placed barriers 

at 115 miles per 

hour. Both 

wings separated 

from the aircraft 

and the fuselage 

broke in two 

places. The only fire occurred at impact when engine oil ignited. The prototype gelled fuel 

containment system, designed to reduce post-crash fires, worked well. Researchers 

reported that only 2 of the 21 test dummies and 1 of the 3 dolls on board would have 

perished in the crash. 

These two experiments reflected a growing realization that fatalities in take-off or landing 

accidents could be reduced if passengers were prevented from colliding with the aircraft's 

interior structure or furnishings and protected from post-crash fire and smoke. The tests 

provided valuable data on such matters as fuel spillage; the safety characteristics of rear-, 

forward-, and side-facing passenger seats; and the efficacy of passenger-restraining 

devices.