TimJ

https://www.facebook.com/cnn/videos/10154944901146509 http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2...-ar-origwx.cnn

Looks like the FAA is starting to do some crash testing involving drones. Very interesting video footage of the testing.

From the appearance of things, it would appear that airliners are going to fair well with a direct strike. It will be even more interesting once we see testing of a drone being ingested by a turbine engine.

combatpigg

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Elsewhere in the news the DOT has been awarded $20MM to study the effects that falling boulders have upon moving vehicles.

Chris P. Bacon

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I missed that one, do you have a link to the details on that particular study?

porcia83

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Traditional hand build vehicles no doubt. Like they used to make in the good old days.

Chris P. Bacon

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I sure miss those traditional hand built vehicles from the good old days.

TimJ

At least one gets to see kind of damage a drone will cause to the body of an airliner.

WRM

What does it do to the engine?

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

With a closing speed of 200 MPH+, anyone with any common sense will tell you that nothing could possibly go wrong.
[/humor]

TimJ

Don't know for sure just yet. The FAA hasn't release any test video of that yet. But on a side note, there are plenty of videos out there showing frozen brids being launched into running engines. Some blow up, some don't.

So it's hard to come to solid conclusion.

franklin_m

I watched the video and did not see that stated anywhere. On what evidence are you basing this conclusion?

franklin_m

Here's a couple pictures:

Sport_Pilot

I have seen worse than that from bird strikes and the engine kept running despite the damage.

Hydro Junkie

And I've seen less than that and the engine fail. Circumstances in which an event happens play as much in the results as the event itself. Look at the jet that ditched in the Hudson River and then look at the DC-10 that crashed in South Dakota years prior. The DC-10 had the center engine explode, taking out ALL of the hydraulic systems where, through the skill of THREE PILOTS, many of the passengers lived to tell the tail. The Hudson River plane lost both engines, taking out all of the normally used engine driven hydraulics. Again, only the skill of the pilot and, in this case, a RAT driven emergency hydraulic system made the survival of the passengers possible. Different circumstances, same result, the planes went down with a majority of the people on board surviving

Sport_Pilot

The Hudson river jet did not get hit by one, a couple, or even several geese. It plowed through a whole flock of them. After cleaning it probably showed less damage than the prior photo's. The failure was from being completely plugged up with ground up bird parts. The DC-10 is a poor comparison because it was caused by parts failure and not from a collision. Also that engine was built before the present bird strike requirements.

franklin_m

Ditto. I personally examined the wreckage of an AV8 brought down by a single wrist rocket sized BB. Concord was brought down by a single ruler sized strip of metal on the runway. There's other examples out there too.

franklin_m

Let's not forget the damage caused by the crash landing in the river that would not have been necessary were it not for the engines being snuffed out by the FOD.

Sport_Pilot

That is a very old military plane. Not an airliner engine built for bird strikes. Besides won't happen for many years, bird strikes will be much more common. Grounding fire fighter planes for drones, is like grounding ambulances because of swarms of gnats.

Sport_Pilot

Which could have been avoided had they made planes you could actually see out of. A flock of geese would have been easy to see. Each engine had dozens of birds.

franklin_m

I'd really like to see you put that in a letter to the Governor. Since you seem to be unwilling to sign your name under such an opinion, one has to wonder if you're not confident in your expertise.

Sport_Pilot

I am a professional engineer with a license. I will not allow people to easily access my personal information and attack me. This will be common in the near future. Ok maybe not so near, but I think it will be the near future. Violence will be rampant. Starting to escalate now in fact.

franklin_m

So you are in fact unwilling to sign your name to a letter telling the Governor he was wrong. That speaks volumes.

Chris P. Bacon

My Feedback: (4)

Considering bird strikes are a far more serious issue than drones at the moment what efforts are you spearheading at the moment to mitigate bird strikes?

Sport_Pilot

I did not say that, however I see no good from doing so.

Sport_Pilot

What are you doing about all of the boat collisions? That is a real problem. But you focus on something that hasn't been a problem at all.

porcia83

My Feedback: (8)

So does repeating the same illogical request to put something in writing to a Governor, over and over and over when someone doesn't agree with your position. As if that somehow proves you are right, or that the letter would have any effect on anything. Useless, meaningless, and ineffective action.