About 1000 meters above the ground, the lines separated, and the F- 15 model was once again in free flight. McMurtry quickly assumed control and guided the plane to an emergency landing in the desert. The plane hit a Joshua tree and a raised roadbank, inflicting some damage-but McMurtry's skill had saved it to fly another day. The incident encouraged those who wished to land the RPRVs using skids. Soon after, NASA did indeed begin landing the F-15 RPRV on the lake, like any other unpowered research airplane.
Controversy still surrounds the RPRV concept.
Ground researchers have sometimes tended to see the method as a way of relegating manned flight testing to a position of unimportance. RPRVs are ideal for use when manned testing is impossible or unduly dangerous. In some situations, they can be considerably cheaper than testing a manned aircraft. They cannot fly independentl of a large, complex ground support system, so support costs for RPRV vehicles closely approximate those of manned aircraft. Nevertheless, the Flight Research Center had proved that the RPRV could make a meaningful contribution to flight research.