“ TERRADYNAMICS ” EARTH PENETRATION BY PROJECTILES 1967 SANDIA LABORATORY RESEARCH FILM 68464

Want to support this channel and help us preserve old films? Visit Visit our website This 1967 Film produced by Sandia Laboratory Motion Picture Division was directed by Edward Reilly and edited and filmed by Wayne Hancock. It shows the progress that has been made by Sandia Laboratories over the years on how projectiles move through different soil characteristics. It shows several field penetration tests, how these were prepared in the lab, and the mathematics that is behind their predictive models. Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), also known as Sandia,is one of three research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Headquartered in Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Sandia was established in 1949, SNL is a “multimission laboratory“ with the primary goal of advancing U.S. national security by developing various science-based technologies. In 1960, Sandia began studying projectiles moving through Earth — a field it dubbed terradynamics — in pursuit of weapon designs that could successfully pass through different soil environments and operate underground. 0:08 the narrator takes a book from a shelf and begins speaking to the camera, 0:35 US Air Force F-100D Super Sabre inflight and dropping a projectile, 1:03 “Terradynamics” by Sandia Laboratory, 1:16 narrator continues speaking to camera, 1:55 narrator showing different types of materials on the earth’s surface, 2:24 slow motion footage of penetration vehicles being dropped into different materials, 3:02 narrator stands next to the penetration vehicles and shows the different parts, 4:23 slow motion footage of the projectile hitting the ground, 4:46 an F-104 Starfighter dropping a projectile, 5:13 narrator standing next to a recovered vehicle, 5:25 animation showing the deceleration characteristics of the projectile as it enters the earth, 7:02 animation of deceleration by soil composition, 7:12 scientists in a lab preparing sand, 7:34 footage of early slow motion penetration tests, 7:51 narrator speaks to the camera, 8:28 needle bearing rollers stacked in a tank, 9:44 scientist mounts a penetrator and begins preparing equipment for the test, 10:48 test begins, 10:56 scientists looking at the photographs from the test, 11:08 sequence of the photos taken, 12:17 photograph with the shear front of the projectile overlaid, 13:15 man speaks to the camera, 14:07 equation that predicts penetration depths followed by a nomogram, 14:54 sample characteristics of a test being shown on the nomogram, 15:27 aerial overview of the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada, 15:36 a US Air Force Bell UH-1 dropping the projectile, 16:01 scientist marking the tension cracks at the impact site, 16:35 drill being used to recover the vehicle, 17:20 close up of the soil point where the vehicle used to be, 18:01 a scientist cutting up the soil point for analysis, 18:15 scientist using an x-ray machine to look at the soil point cross section, 18:38 scientists using an ISO densitometer to measure soil sample density variations, 19:02 narrator speaks to the camera, 19:24 scientists constructing a projectile, 19:45 animation of a plane dropping vehicles on varied soil, 20:16 narrator speaking to camera, 20:58 Produced by Sandia Laboratory Motion Picture Division, 21:03 Director and Writer Edward Reilly, Editor and Cameraman Wayne Hancock Terradynamics is the study of forces and movement during terrestrial locomotion (particularly that using legs) on ground that can flow such as sand and soil. The term “terradynamics“ is used in analogy to aerodynamics for flying in the air and hydrodynamics for swimming in water. This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit