Continuing our chat about airplanes and birds..........
One might
reasonably wonder how a small bird like a starling, gull, or goose can possibly
cause damage to a huge airplane like a Boeing 747. The answer is physics. The
plane is going extremely fast, and when something collides with something which
is going very fast, the resulting damage can be very significant. If a bird
hits at the right angle or in the right spot, it can bring a plane down,
especially in the case of a multiple bird strike, where a plane hits several
birds.
Ironically,
airports often provide great habitats for birds and other wildlife. Since the
area around an airport is cleared for navigational purposes, the off-limits
areas around airports create an ideal spot for birds to live, especially around
airports in coastal cities, as these airports are often surrounded by natural
wetlands. Birds tend to congregate around airports because they provide
habitat, and as a result, they increase the risk of bird strikes.
Some airports
use a variety of measures to control birds, with the goal of reducing the
hazard by reducing the number of birds. Many planes are also designed with
failsafes to prevent bird strikes or to ensure that the plane will continue
operating if it is damaged by birds, and pilots are trained about bird strikes
and how to avoid them. Tools like radar, for example, are used to identify
flocks of birds so that they can be avoided. Fatalities are a result of bird
strikes are very infrequent, but BASH incidents cause substantial amounts of
damage to civil, military, and private aircraft every year.
Incidentally,
for those readers who may be wondering, there is an official term for the smear
of pulverized bird left behind after a bird strike: SNARGE. Aviation safety
officials often inspect the snarge to identify the species involved and to
learn more about the precise path of the bird strike.
(The above info was obtained from wisegeek.com)
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