From a public relations standpoint the joint NASA/FAA test crash of the Boeing 720 was a flaming failure. The AMK seemed to go up like a torch. When all the smoke cleared, however, much data was found to have survived, and FAA expects a wealth of information from it.

The Crash of the 720 (Excerpts of Airline Executive Magazine, February 1985, Page 14) By Larry Levy "Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing," goes an old pilot's saying.

Despite its appearance, the unplanned inferno resulting from the planned crash of a Boeing 720 on a dry lake at Edwards Air Force Base, CA, must have been a "good landing"-- Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole walked away from the post-crash news conference. Her schedule, you understand, was just too tight, a spokesman said. The day preceding the crash, Mrs. Dole seemed ecstatic about "making history" with the "Controlled Impact Demonstration," governmentese to avoid the word "crash." She left the 400 newsmen the National Aeronautics & Space Administralion said were at Edwards to others: James Woodall, who was in overall charge of the program for the Federal Aviation Administration, and Fitz Fulton, the pilot who had, by remote control, flown the 720 on its final flight. Donald Engen, FAA administrator, wore a sweater and sat among newsmen, but not for long. Woodall and Engen, a retired naval aviator of admiral rank and former head of the National Transportation Safety Board, both seemed somewhat shaken at the ensuing news conference, even though it came more than three hours after the crash on the specially prepared "runway. "

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