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Old 09-08-2015, 06:45 AM
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Originally Posted by jelge
I haven't read all of the posts in this thread so I don't know if this was posted or not but there have been at least two reported UAV vs. full scale midair collisions this year. One in Illinois and one in California to go with the long list of near misses. Although unconfirmed, the Illinois collision generated damage that could not have been from a bird strike.

http://www.flyingmag.com/technique/accidents/faa-investigating-reported-uav-collision-piper-twin

Here is an old one under "controlled" conditions of the military.

http://defensetech.org/2011/08/17/mi...130-and-a-uav/

It won't be long before someone gets killed in a midair collision with a UAV.
Even the FAA admits that the first incident may or may not have involved a UAV. It's interesting to note that this aircraft is owned by an aerial imaging company, which stands to loose a lot of business from camera-equipped drones.

The second incident involved a very large military drone that is not available to the general public.

As far as I know, there have been no confirmed reports of a civilian UAV colliding with any full scale aircraft.

I think a midair collision between a UAV and a full scale aircraft will happen, eventually. However, I think the chance of a fatality in the aftermath of such an incident is unlikely. If a C-130 can survive an severe airborne impact with a 185 pound drone, a hobby grade drone has little to no chance to cause a fatal accident. Even if a UAV is ingested into a jet engine, the pilot will shut down the engine, the engine's integrated fire extinguishers will douse any fire, and the pilots will land the aircraft safely, just has they have dozens of times in a simulator. No twin-engine aircraft can certified unless it is capable of climbing on a single engine, and jets can generally take off on one engine after they reach a certain speed.