V40
Well-Known Member
On a more serious note after Jeeeesy's quite funny post, at least to me it was because I was a Pilot at one time. Like I stated before, on the more serious side though by the 1960's the number of bird strikes had quite reached the double mark. Anytime you cannot avoid any birds, ducks, or Eagles in flight you are going to immediately start feeling a doomed like feeling. This is because in a jet propulsion airplane you have to not only remember about the wind screen but bird hits into the engine can simply be catastrophic to the airplane, especially in a single engine versus a twin engine airplane.
This happened to a Thunderbird pilot that was practicing at Burke-Lake Front airport where they hold an air show every year on Labor Day. This is the exact same spot ewhere by which the old Cleveland Air Races were held at during the 1920's and 1930'sair show a few years back when I was a teenager. The pilot did a low fast crossing pattern along the sea wall and hit an Albatross immediately causing the single engine F-16 to flame out and catch on fire the pilot immediately pulled up as far as he could go then when his airplane was fully engulfed with fire he pulled the yellow and black colored handles and out he went. The only problem was the fact that he had ejected too close to the rocks and ended up breaking his neck and dying instantly. Everything else worked to profession.
Also, if you ever get to see on the history channel about an aircraft carrier leaving port with basically a somewhat new crew. One of the traditions when you are on board of an aircraft carrier is to come up out and stand on the flight deck and having an F-18 fly past the carrier doing over Mach 1. Well on this day it didn't quite work out this way. The F-18 then had a big burn out in its left engine, do to a foreign object strike,ie by a sea bird. When the two pilots were rescued they came back to the carrier with eyes as wide as saucers and bulging out a little. They were measured from head to toe and were almost an 1 1/2 smaller. The condition goes away after a week or so.
It is also true that Jet airplanes have it worst when it comes to bird strikes. The prop driven airplanes along with the turbo props will more than likely not see a direct hit from bird going first through the propellers, unless it is the size of a large bird such as a duck. The more mass a bird has then the more chopping action will be needed to keep the rest of the bird from going through the wind screen.
Conclusion to part 1...
This happened to a Thunderbird pilot that was practicing at Burke-Lake Front airport where they hold an air show every year on Labor Day. This is the exact same spot ewhere by which the old Cleveland Air Races were held at during the 1920's and 1930'sair show a few years back when I was a teenager. The pilot did a low fast crossing pattern along the sea wall and hit an Albatross immediately causing the single engine F-16 to flame out and catch on fire the pilot immediately pulled up as far as he could go then when his airplane was fully engulfed with fire he pulled the yellow and black colored handles and out he went. The only problem was the fact that he had ejected too close to the rocks and ended up breaking his neck and dying instantly. Everything else worked to profession.
Also, if you ever get to see on the history channel about an aircraft carrier leaving port with basically a somewhat new crew. One of the traditions when you are on board of an aircraft carrier is to come up out and stand on the flight deck and having an F-18 fly past the carrier doing over Mach 1. Well on this day it didn't quite work out this way. The F-18 then had a big burn out in its left engine, do to a foreign object strike,ie by a sea bird. When the two pilots were rescued they came back to the carrier with eyes as wide as saucers and bulging out a little. They were measured from head to toe and were almost an 1 1/2 smaller. The condition goes away after a week or so.
It is also true that Jet airplanes have it worst when it comes to bird strikes. The prop driven airplanes along with the turbo props will more than likely not see a direct hit from bird going first through the propellers, unless it is the size of a large bird such as a duck. The more mass a bird has then the more chopping action will be needed to keep the rest of the bird from going through the wind screen.
Conclusion to part 1...
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