O teste foi realizado pelos Sandia National Laboratories, nos termos de um contrato com o Muto Institute of Structural Mechanics, Inc., de Tóquio. O objetivo do teste :
... was to determine the impact force, versus time, due to the impact, of a complete F-4 Phantom — including both engines — onto a massive, essentially rigid reinforced concrete target (3.66 meters thick).
Os relatórios sobre os testes podem ser encontrados nestes locais:
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Teste de impacto de aeronaves em grande escala para avaliação de forças de impacto: Parte 1, Plano de teste, método de teste e resultados de teste por von Rieseman, WA et al. e
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Teste de impacto de aeronaves em grande escala para avaliação da força de impacto: Parte 2: Análise dos resultados por K. Muto et. al.
Curiosamente, as aeronaves usadas nos testes eram voáveis. O relatório observa:
A flyable F4D aircraft was acquired by Sandia. The aircraft was modified slightly in order to support the aircraft at four locations with a special carriage structure. ... the aircraft weighed 12.7 tonnes (with some avionics removed). The impact weight was 19 tonnes, which included ... 4.8 tonnes of water that was added to simulate the fuel weight...
The target consisted of a block of reinforced concrete 7m square and 3.66m thick ... with a combined weight of 469 tonnes.
A aeronave caiu com os motores e apenas algumas partes foram removidas :
A fully functional F4 was used in the impact test.Only the gears and flaps at the main wings were partly removed and replaced by a carriage structure and sleds.
Isso também pode estar no diagrama de distribuição de massa a seguir para a aeronave usada no teste.
Imagem de Teste de impacto de aeronaves em grande escala para avaliação das forças de impacto: Parte 1, Plano de teste, método de teste e resultados do teste por von Rieseman, WA et al.
Finalmente, o teste foi para medir as forças de impacto, não a força do muro, como enfatizado por Sandia :
At Sandia, a spokesman, John German, said the point of the test was to move the wall, as a way to measure the impact forces. ... as a preliminary step in building a computer model of such impacts, ...
Mr. German said: "That test was designed to measure the impact force of a fighter jet. But the wall was not being tested. No structure was being tested."