The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has a number of standards and regulations that are designed to protect occupants in the event of a crash. Compliance with these regulations is described in the Code of Federal Regulations 14 CFR 25.562 for transport category aircraft, with similar regulations for other types of aircraft in parts 23, 27, and 29. One of these required tests is a seated dynamic impact with either a Hybrid II or FAA Hybrid III Anthropomorphic Test Device (ATD) with a pulse which has a primary vertical component. Vertical loading can be obtained in other environments such as under vehicle blast, ejection seat testing, or as part of a vehicle rollover. When the commonly used ATDs were developed, focus was placed on frontal impact performance with some consideration given to rear and lateral loading. It has recently been brought up that there could be significant variability in the compressive lumbar load measurement during vertical impacts. This variability could be between tests with the same ATD, between tests within the same ATD family, and between ATDs attempting to measure the same response. To quantify this issue, data from several test sources including from the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, National Institute for Aviation Research and the Air Force Research Laboratory was collected. Cases were selected where the primary loading phase was in the vertical direction on a variety of ATDs including the Hybrid II, FAA Hybrid III, Hybrid III, and aerospace variants. These cases also included different configurations including restraint systems, cushions, and acceleration levels. This study was limited to only investigating the compressive variability and not the bending moment or in cases where significant multi axial loading could occur. Also, since these data were from different test laboratories, slight differences in test procedures could also have affected the results. Through this analysis it was shown that the Hybrid III had the most repeatable response whether it was the FAA Hybrid III or the aerospace Hybrid III. One issue noted was the lack of calibration methods for the lumbar spine to assess its current characteristics. Without this calibration method, there is no way other than visual inspection which would only show gross changes to determine when a lumbar spine segment has been degraded. Such a performance requirement should be developed for both ATDs currently in the field and those being newly developed and used such as the THOR.