Title: Controlled Impact Demonstration
Designer: Unknown
Year it was designed: circa 1984
Explanation or story behind the patch: A Boeing 720B (N833NA) was modified as a remotely piloted vehicle in preparation for the NASA/FAA Controlled Impact Demonstration (CID) program in 1984. The airplane arrived at NASA Dryden on 20 July 1984. Prior to the final CID mission, 14 test flights were made with a safety crew onboard. During these flights, 10 remote takeoffs, 13 remote landings, and 69 CID approaches were accomplished. All remote takeoffs were flown from the Edwards AFB main runway. Remote landings took place on the emergency recovery runway (lakebed runway 25) on Rogers Dry Lake. The final CID flight was entirely remote-controlled with no safety crew onboard. It ended with an intentional crash landing on a specially prepared test area of the lakebed. The project patch features the remotely piloted airplane approaching a target on the lakebed surface. The CID test was sometimes jokingly referred to as “Crash In the Desert.”
For more information on the Controlled Impact Demonstration, click https://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/FactSheets/FS-003-dfrc.html