What happens when you hit a bird at 185 Knots?
Discussion
t one at 420kts, trust me...A while back now but I remember a 13sqn tonka birdstrike that hit and entered the windscreen, pilot got it in the face, backseat got hit too but had his mask on etc. Showed pictures of the bruising on the faces, ouch! Bird guts everywhere!
Last canopy strike I was involved in was years back but pretty damn messy!
Best way of detecting a bird strike down an engine... smells like chicken!
(ignoring the blood and feather trails...
Last canopy strike I was involved in was years back but pretty damn messy!
Best way of detecting a bird strike down an engine... smells like chicken!
(ignoring the blood and feather trails...PaulG40 said:
A while back now but I remember a 13sqn tonka birdstrike that hit and entered the windscreen, pilot got it in the face, backseat got hit too but had his mask on etc. Showed pictures of the bruising on the faces, ouch! Bird guts everywhere!
Are canopies not bulletproof any more?Tango13 said:
There was an urban myth from De Havilland in Hatfield that went along the lines of an air powered cannon was used to simulate birdstrikes by firing chickens at parts of the airframe but one day somebody forgot to defrost the chicken 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_gunThe development runs thus:
'Rolls Royce built a type of gun to fire a dead chicken at the windscreens of Jet airliners and military aircraft to test that they could withstand a bird strike at full velocity.
A team of Americans working on a new high speed train heard about it and got in touch with Rolls Royce who arranged for a gun to be sent over to test the trains widscreen.
The americans were horrified when they tested the screen for the first time when the chicken smashed through the screen, tore through the drivers high backed seat and embedded itself in the back of the cabin. The americans urgently sent their Design drawings , calculations, specifications and test data over to Rolls Royce begging for assistance in finding out where they went wrong.
Rolls Royce sent back a one line memo....
"Defrost the Chicken".'
I can confirm that the smell of a seagull is awful. Had a bird strike through the window of an aircraft I was on doing about 130kts blood and guts everywhere my shoes were covered in it. And the head ended up below my seat. The smell of fish and guts was not pleasant and everything just smelt of it for weeks.
For what it's worth - I hit a fairly small, female Pheasant once on a motorbike, when I was doing a similar speed...
Fortunately for me, when it flew out from the hedge to my left, it flew out low enough to hit the front of the bike, rather than my head or chest. If it had hit me, then I would have probably been thrown from the bike...
Anyway, I hit it with the front headlamp of the bike.
It was a HUGE impact - enough for me to feel the bike slow by at least 10mph, and create a massive bang plus a shower of broken glass and plastic that shot past my head
When I stopped, the front of the bike was obliterated.
The headlamp and fairing plastics around it were gone. The bird had come so far back, it had also detached the instrument unit from it's mountings - and the instrument panel was also in many bits.
Upon further investigation, even the metal support brackets for the headlamp fairing and instruments was bent too.
And the remainder of the bird's carcass was embedded deep into the bracketry.
I couldn't believe the amount of damage from such a small bird!!!
Fortunately for me, when it flew out from the hedge to my left, it flew out low enough to hit the front of the bike, rather than my head or chest. If it had hit me, then I would have probably been thrown from the bike...
Anyway, I hit it with the front headlamp of the bike.
It was a HUGE impact - enough for me to feel the bike slow by at least 10mph, and create a massive bang plus a shower of broken glass and plastic that shot past my head
When I stopped, the front of the bike was obliterated.
The headlamp and fairing plastics around it were gone. The bird had come so far back, it had also detached the instrument unit from it's mountings - and the instrument panel was also in many bits.
Upon further investigation, even the metal support brackets for the headlamp fairing and instruments was bent too.
And the remainder of the bird's carcass was embedded deep into the bracketry.
I couldn't believe the amount of damage from such a small bird!!!
PaulG40 said:
Best way of detecting a bird strike down an engine... smells like chicken! (ignoring the blood and feather trails...
Not sure about chicken! It certainly smells of something, you never ever forget the smell of it. Can feel it at the back of nose just thinking about it, bleurgh. (ignoring the blood and feather trails...They make a mess of Harrier windscreens.
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