Aircraft Windshield?

Question

What happens if an Aircraft is hit by a Bird midflight in the Windshield region? Are there no options available to prevent Bird hits?

Answer 1

There are no options. For this reason, aircraft windshield are toughened, double layer and the faster the plane flies, the tougher they are. Planes are routed around known bird flocks, which show up on radar and most flying is done well above bird flight levels.

Answer 2

War story time! In a place far away and many years ago I was flying a small recon helicopter returning to my home base. We were crusing low level and fast. In the other front seat was my crew chief. We had completed a mission and were hot and tired. Nobody is relaxed or any the less on edge, we were still tense and the systems were hot. We never saw the hit coming, this mass was simply in the lower front windscreen and was all over the cockpit in a nanosecond. The crewchief was yelling that he was hit and stuff..... eyeballs,beaks,poop,inards,ect. was everywhere. I was busy making sure if I still had control and trying to see past all the mess flying around in the cabin. In that brief moment of what the s--t is going on and recognizing a mouth full of feathers, it occured to me something was not quiet right and consistent with taking and enemy round.

My crew chief was saved any big personal damage by the fact he had on his personal armor (brest plate) and the very large gull/bird in question had bounced off that after coming through and then come apart. We simply opened the doors and let what would blow out, the rest was cleaned out after returning to base.

The bird came through while we were making about 140kts and thankfully made first contact in the cockpit with the crewchief and did not make contact/impact any controls. system.

Yes he had a very sore chest for some time. At least he had no holes in his person. No, he did not get the Purple Heart, he refused it saying he could never hold his head up explaining the incident.

Answer 3

You are referring to what are called "Bird Strikes"... they happen and they are unaviodable... if the bird is where the plane wants to go, they cant just slam on the brakes... its a rough ending for the bird but often for the airplane as well... it can cause pretty good damage to any component on the aircraft... the worst places for a hit are the engines, pitot tubes, and wind screen..... it damages the engines, clogs the pitot tubes, and can go through the wind screen...

A professor told a story in college about a pilot that was a sitting in the right seat for the first time on an airlne flight out of Moline, IL --- MLI... (back in those days, there were no sim's so that was the first time he had ever flown that airplane) A bird went through the wind screen and decapitated the pilot, killing him and shooting blood all around the cockpit... that first officer was able to land the unfamiliar airplane after a few tries and everyone was safe... except the captain...

I do not know the accuracy of that story but if anyone can confirm it, that would be great...

Answer 4

All the above answers are correct as far as larger, pressurized aircraft are concerned. Smaller general aviation aircraft however like Cessnas, Pipers, and smaller helicopters have only plexiglas windshields that are vulnerable to bird strikes. I have come close a few times to striking larger birds like buzzards floating arounds airports during takeoffs and landings. It would not be pleasant.
Our local police helicopter struck a large bird that went through the windscreen not too long ago. It struck the pilot in the face and wound up in the backseat. The pilot much to his credit was able to keep his composure and make an emergency landing off airport. Other than a hole in the windshield, there was no damage to the helicopter.

Answer 5

High speed aircraft have strong windshields. General aviation windshields are only 1/4 inch plexiglass (not even Lexan) and will break when struck by a bird.

I've just about hit a few birds. Generally they always dive down when they see an aircraft so the best thing to do is pull up. Also avoid low flying over wetlands and beaches.

Answer 6

I have changed a few of them. My experience consists of HS125-700A BAe Hawker which has several layers consisting of varying thicknesses of both glass and lexan. The whole assembly is approx one and a quarter inches thick. MOST birds will glance off cause little or no damage. I have also done a Cessna Citation CJ. This one is 2 layers and about one and one eighth inches thick. same as above. The greatest protection is provided by the fact that when these aircraft reach their cruise speed their altitude is well above that which birds fly. Birds cause more problems to radomes and engines than windshields. Other than their thickness and testing during the certification phase of production, there is no protection. However, they REALLY do shoot chickens out of cannons at the windshields to test them during the design phase, and they MUST meet certain requirements, including absorbing chicken impact at varying speeds!

Answer 7

I have hit a bird in flight. The window are very strong but do some searching on the net for pictures of impact damage. You would be very very shocked. You can avoid bird strikes. For the most part bird stay below 1000 feet AGL (Above Ground Level). Some can and do go up much higher then that but it is rare that you see it. The smaller bird don't do much damage but the larger ones can cause major damage if they hit an engine or wing etc.

Answer 8

Depends on how fast the aircraft is travellling and the size of the bird. On larger commercial aircraft most birds wouldn't do much damage to the windscreen. Most birdstrikes occur closer to the ground during takeoff and approach phases, at this stage the aircrafts speed is relatively low compared to say cruise. However if a birdstrike does occur general inspection of the aircraft external surfaces are carried out plus inspections of engines in case of ingestion.

Prevention of birdstrike is usually left to airport authorities (again most strikes are near ground). Where I work they use shotguns with star shells to scare (not shoot) birds away that linger around. Some aircraft are fitted with landing lights that flash during approach as a sort of visual deterrant.

Answer 9

Aircraft windshields are tested and retested. they have this air powered gun that they use to test the strength of the windshield. they need to with stand an impact from a bird at speeds of over 250 MPH. how do they do this? Believe it or not they take whole fryer chickens and fire them at the windshields to see if they will with stand the impact. It's a pretty cool operation.

Answer 10

Part of the testing for passenger planes is what happen in a bird strike (Windshield and engines). Gas turbine engines are required to keep running after ingesting a bird, ice or massive amounts of rain.