 (Click photo to enlarge.) |
Dwarfed by the jetliner, they look little more than a smattering of black dots.
But this flock of birds could have brought the plane crashing down in seconds.
They flew straight into the path of the Germania airlines flight to Kosovo as it took off from Dusseldorf airport with 80 on board.
‘The pitch of the engine said it all,’ said plane-spotter Juergen Kienast, who took these dramatic pictures.
‘It was like sticking a bit of metal pipe into a blender.’
Once airborne, the pilot reported engine damage and circled for almost 45 minutes before landing safely.
I wonder how they counted them?
They already have ways of making sure birds are kept away from airports. They fly birds of prey like falcons and use other methods. I’m curious to know what happened in this case and how such a large flock managed to go undetected.
There is a lot of difference between the inlet of a jet intake on a fighter and the compressor on a high bypass turbofan.
The inlet flaps on a mig/su are only about a foot across and operate only on take off retracting into the inlets.
The fan on an A380/777 engine is almost 12″ in diameter – where is this going to retract into?
Also a jet fighter’s engines aren’t running flat out on most takeoffs, a commercial jet’s are. If you include the restriction of the screen you would have to increase the engine power considerably.
They contracted with Acorn to provide census services.
Stupid fucking birds
I agree with #22. A screen to cover the entire inlet on one turbofan would be over 100 square ft. And the grid small enough to prevent parts of the birds being sucked thru. This would be a HUGE hindrance on airflow, so the inlet would have to be even larger to allow the same amount of air thru.
And even with this, if you ran into a large flock of starlings like this incident, the birds would be kept against the screen (by the suction of the turbofan and the airflow from the plane’s movement) and clog it up. Now you have insufficient airflow to the engine at the plane’s most critical moment. Bad news.
#18 bobbo I think you are confusing engineer with cost accountant.
Dang, a couple hundred birds can ruin your whole day.
In theory a ramjet that could work at low speeds doesn’t need a turban which would allow you to avoid most of the damage but then ramjets don’t work at low speeds.
#28–do-ill==”in theory” a ramjet only works at HIGH speed. I think you “know” this but are so lazy with words/ideas you think you can just say anything you want to. Unlike things political, economic, social==science doesn’t work that way. So, theoretically speaking–at low speed how is the air compressed in your ram jet? ((Its called a ram jet instead of a slightly pushed jet for a reason.))
#22–Nobody==I think you have it. I recall that the compressor of a jet and a fan jet are exactly the same. The difference is a fan jet has “extended” compressor blades that are wrapped in the intake shroud. The same engine/compressor with another set of blades connected to it completely outside the engine is called a turboprop. 3 compressors and exhausts, basically the same engine, with 3 different compressor BLADE designs. Roughly.
I think we solved that engineering challenge.
amodedoma said,
“But that’s it, let’s face it, they’re ugly, noisy, lice ridden little shit machines.”
“Shit Machine” would be a good name for a rock band! (Joke ripped from Dave Barry.)
I read somewhere these are Old World birds brought here for some reason and now they’re a pest?
Sorry for the double post but-
“I agree with #22. A screen to cover the entire inlet on one turbofan would be over 100 square ft. And the grid small enough to prevent parts of the birds being sucked thru. This would be a HUGE hindrance on airflow, so the inlet would have to be even larger to allow the same amount of air thru.”
These great engines suck huge volumes of air. Could it be possible to redirect a small amount of this air pressure at takeoff to keep debris out? Keep birds and large debris out with redirected air pressure?
Shredded Tweet, Breakfast of the Brave.
Bobbo, #18.
LOL!!!
-200 birds
But the special effects are boring.
Double bird strike, FTW!
CAUGHT, PLUCKED, SKINNED, DEBONED, FRIED, and CHOPPED in 1 easy pass…
got a fork??
NEW type of ROAD KILL??
It looks like on the Russian jet fighter, the
air intake is highly slanted. If the protective screen is also at such an angle, bird carcases
might bounce off, instead of sticking and clogging
the vital air-flow. This might not be practical
on ‘flat’ intake passenger jets.