How do modern aircraft avoid birdstrike?

Question

Or do they just hope not to get hit by a bird?

Answer 1

Bird strikes are unavoidable, just like having a rock cracking your windshield while driving down the freeway.

Upon landing airports are responsible when it comes to making sure there are no flocks hanging around near the approach area of the landing patterns. We are talking about right at the approach. Had 2 company 737's take multiple hits once on approach and the airport was responsible because it happened over their airport. Anything further out is just plain luck.

There are no magical designs or mods done to aircraft to avoid strikes. They just hit when they hit and guys like me get stuck cleaning their guts off of the aircraft and doing inspections. Btw the best thing that removes whats left of them regardless of the surface is Windex ;)

Answer 2

Well, the chances of a bird strike occuring are when the aircraft is flying close to the ground esp during landing and taking off. However, there is no concrete method to avoid a bird strike, it is just a matter of when. Most airports make use of air guns and high pitched alarm to keep to birds away from airport premises.

However, that still does not rule out the possiblity! Thus, aircraft makers decided that rather than to avoid a bird strike, they would concentrate thier resources on getting the aircraft to absorb a bird strike yet be able to perform a safe landing without endangering lives on the plane and on the ground. Lengthy and costly testing are done regularly to see how bird strikes cause damage to the engine and how to minimize the damage. Most jets can easily carry out a landing or takeoff on one engine should the other engine be damaged by a birdstrike!

Answer 3

1) The cockpit windshield is designed to sustain a hit by a big bird (duck, geese, etc.) up to speeds of 250 knots. That's why all the aircraft are mandated to fly 250kts or less while bellow 10 000 ft where most of the birds fly. Problem occur during birdf migrations because flocks of geese have been observed flying even higher.
2) Every airliner has more than one engine and chance of being hit into both engines simultaneosly is really remote, even than that aircraft can glide.
3) Fuselage strikes are not so dangerous but can create costly dents to the body of an airplane.

Answer 4

Planes have to fly low sometimes. Like landing and takeoff.
Modern airplanes cannot try to avoid a bird, but if there is a flock, normally a control tower will warn them if they are in the area.
No plane is designed to take a bird strike. Engines can suck up a bird and tear it up, but if it hits a window or the wing a bird can cause severe damage.
Pilots do try to keep up on migration patterns to avoid them if possible, but to try and swerve to miss one at a high rate of speed is dangerous and almost impossible.
Imagine being on a 747 and the pilot swerves to miss a pigeon?
Normally birds will avoid a bigger object as I have witnessed it flying in my aircraft. They can move out of the way much faster than an aircraft can.
So yes you hope the bird does get out of the way, however bird strikes are far too common.
They can chase them away from the field but that puts them into the air where a strike is more likely.

Answer 5

well it is very seldom that aircraft are alloved to fly that low where the birds are.

Secondly when they come in for landing there is not much that they can do..they just hace to bite it and take it all if they see a potential birdstick while on approach..

Thirdly some airports enploy the use of falconry to get rid of existing small birds and also may send the firetruch out in the morning to scare them away -depending on how busy the airport/runway is..

Forthly if a pilot does see a potential for a bird strike he/she may take evasive action only when safe to do so but like I said..chances of him being that low are seldom unless for landing in which case it is not worth an abort take landing in the hope of MAYBE missing a POTENTIAL birdstrike..just take it all...it is cheaper to fix a birdstike damage ( And it has to be a fair sized bird to make an impression) than risk evasive action especially over a runway or airport and pay for a crash!

Lastly if it is the engine of an airliner you are worried about you can sleep well..those babies chomp up birds for breakfast and don't skip a beat..especially the turbo fan engines.

Good question.

Answer 6

They try to avoid flocks of birds, but some birdstrikes are inevitable. The aircraft are designed so that critical components are resistant to bird impacts. In fact, in order top be certificated a new design of plane must withstand impacts on things such as windsreens from dead chickens thrown at them by what is commonly referred to as a 'Rooster Booster'*. The result can still be really messy. Also damaging to unreinforced structure. I know this from having 'cleaned up' after several birdstrikes at my old employer.

*One aircraft builder in europe, hoping to get its aircraft certificated for sale in the U.S., obtained a Rooster Booster to conduct birdstrike tests. After several failures of impact tests on windscreens, they went to the manufacturer to determine what was going wrong. They were amazed when they were told they needed to thaw out the chickens first.

Answer 7

Spiral design in the center of the jet engine is supposed to look like the bird of prey eye. Around air ports there are whistles that sound like owls and hawks. Many small birds get hit by 160 mph air planes taking off and landing with out any problem. Really big birds like geese blown up into a thunder storm frozen and sucked into a jet engine. Ka Boom! switch to another engine. Have you ever seen what hail does to an airplane it is not good.

Answer 8

Most bird strikes happen fairly close to the ground, in the vicinity of airports. With their wide expanses of grassy areas between the runways and around the airport, a wide variety of fauna find a good home. Not just birds, but all sorts of small mammals and acquatic/amphibious life such as frogs and turtles and all create unique hazards to aviation.

Such seemingly mundane items as adjusting the grass height by a few inches can have a major impact on which species of animals will choose to make it home. If the grass is too tall, it can attract ground nesting birds such as grouse or pheasants. They tend to stay fairly close to the ground and can be a serious hazard on takeoff if they're spooked and fly across an active runway.

If it's too short, small mammals such as mice and voles tend to move in. They tend to attract raptors such as owls, eagles or falcons who soar at altitudes that interfere with the local traffic patterns and approach and departure corridors.

Allowing too much standing water to accumulate can attract frogs and turtles. Frogs are a nuisance as they can be sucked into engines of taxiing aircraft and do a lot of damage. Turtles aren't too much of a hazard for large aircraft, but can damage the landing gear of small aircraft if they hit them while taking off or landing.

Managing the Bird/Aircraft Strike Hazard, or BASH, program is a challenge that falls primarily on the airport manager. It requires a comprehensive analysis of the local flora and fauna and careful management of conditions to limit wildlife activity on and around the airport. This is combined with dispersal tactics such as noise cannons or bird scare cartridges (shotgun shells with an explosive charge -- way cool!) or even using trained falcons to scare off the birds. Frequent inspections of the airfield throughout the day are also performed and any unusual wildlife activity information is passed to ATC to pass on to aircrews to help them avoid hazardous conditions.

Answer 9

Airports have Hawks to keep th e other birds away, and that some times doesnot work.. I've seen a bird get sucked in an intake of an Eagle (F15) on Camp Edwards ANG base years ago.

Answer 10

Planes rr designed to withstand bird strikes, and airports have deterrents to birds along the perimeter.