Originally Posted by
Sport_Pilot
Per the Mythbusters conclusion.
Result of myth: when a chicken is flying that fast, it don't matter what temperature it is.
They did find that a frozen chicken did more damage, but the result for the higher speeds that a jetliner flies at made little difference. The high kinetic energy overwhelms any difference the hardness makes. The motors on such a small sUAV just don't weigh that much. The batteries would do more damage. But its the total combined weight that will determine the actual damage.
I guess it also depends on the size of UAV we are talking about. - a small Phantom or Blade 350QX will do less damage than a larger machine. I have a UAV almost 1 meter across that weighs 4.5 Kilograms (10lbs) - most of the construction is metal, the motors are 150 grams each and it carries a 1 kilogram battery.
That would do very nasty things to a jet engine or cockpit windscreen impacting at 300 Kts.