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Birds And Aircraft.

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nailedit | 20:54 Wed 15th Jan 2025 | Science
10 Answers

When I say birds, I dont mean flight attendants...

Seriously though, just seen a vid about aircraft colliding with animals (mostly flocks of birds, obviously, but also some with other animals on the ground during take off/landing)

 

Question is, why can't the fans/engines of large aircraft have grills over them to prevent engine failure when birds get pulled into them?

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I'm pleased you asked : I've often wondered  ✈

Good question and that got me thinking!  My initial thought was because it might interfere with the airflow.

So I googled it.  It turns out that is one of the reasons!!

Thanks Buenchico.

Question Author

Thanks for the vid Chris. Will watch it shortly.

Only asked because I had  a flying leson some years ago and

wondered at the time what would happen is a seagull

(it was in Blackpool) flew ito the fan of the cessna that I was flying.

Question Author

Thanks for replies all 😁

There is another reason why a grille of some sort will not work.

Jet engines suck in enormous quantities of air. So much air, in fact, that the suction forces in front of the engine are tremendously powerful. There have been many instances of people on the ground being sucked into engines even when they at running at low speeds. It is a particular hazard on aircraft carriers where the launch and retrieval crew have necessarily to be in close proximity to the aircraft. 

The larger engines as used on airliners present a hazard of a different order of magnitude. They can easily suck in a human being and there were a least two cases last year:

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/plane-mechanic-killed-sucked-boeing-jet-engine/

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/man-gets-sucked-into-running-aircraft-engine-at-amsterdam-airport-dies-5773804

An engine powerful enough to suck in a human when running at ground speed will have no problem if it encountered a bird weighing a few pounds when running at flying speed (especially that required on take-off). If a grill was fitted over the inlet the bird would be shredded by it and the remains ingested.

Birds do not normally present much of a hazard to propellor driven aircraft. Propellors simply chop the birds up and the worst hazard on a single engine plane is the debris hitting and perhaps breaking the windscreen.

NailedIt, I once had a couple of lessons in a Cessna 152.  My abiding memory is the instructor saying to me "It's a good idea to make sure that the wheels touch down and not the wings".

Question Author

Thank you NJ & BM.

Not quite sure if the fan thing is a wind-up.

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