Birds and aircraft occupy the same air space and collisions between the two are inevitable. As aircraft speeds have increased, the severity and importance of bird/aircraft impact have also increased. As a result, efforts have been made to reduce the probability of collision by controlling the movement of birds and by changing the flight paths of aircraft. These actions can and have reduced the probability of collision but have not ...
The momentum transferred to J-79 jet engine fan blades through impact with soft body projectiles was measured. Impacts onto stainless steel disks mounted normal to and 25 deg to trajectory were also investigated. Elementary analytical models of the momentum transfer were constructed for each of the three configurations.
Aircraft may be damaged or even destroyed by inflight impacts with birds. Windshields and jet engine fan blades are particularly vulnerable to damage by bird impacts. The purpose of this study has been to experimentally determine the pressure-time variations generated by small birds impacting a flat rigid plate, in an effort to characterize the loading of real aircraft components by bird impacts.
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