Ballistic Impact Facility

The NASA Glenn Ballistic Impact Facility has a wide range of gas guns capable of performing ballistic impact testing on flat panels and composites. Our impact mechanics research and technology efforts are predominantly focused on problems affecting aerospace propulsion and power systems, but can be expanded to many other applications.

Some of the notable features of the facility include a 40-foot long large gas gun with barrels from 8" to 16" diameter and numerous smaller guns mated to vacuum chambers with gun barrel diameters from 0.04" up to 4 inches. Impact velocities typically range up to 2000 ft/sec, depending on projectile mass, but have gone as high as 3000 ft/sec for very light projectiles.

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