Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Regular-Cranberry-91 t1_irobs6s wrote

Serious question, who don't they put like chicken wire or some kind of barrier over the intake side of the engine to stop bird strikes?

28

balrob t1_iroltjf wrote

Because at 600mph no wire will stop a bird. The barrier would be destroyed and parts of it will enter the engine along with the bird.

127

feor1300 t1_irov9ep wrote

On top of what others have said such a mesh would also disturb airflow going into the engines, think about the difference between water coming out of the end of a hose and water coming out of your kitchen tap that has that little mesh bit on the end of it. Turbulent air entering the engines increases the risk of the engines surging, and can potentially cause them to damage themselves or even fail entirely. That's a good chunk of why wake turbulence is such a big deal.

48

Wov t1_irodlt8 wrote

because then you just have 100 bird bits flying into the engine instead of 1 whole bird

23

JJohnston015 t1_irp8sz1 wrote

Well, you know, if you watch those super slo-mo videos of bird strike tests, you'll see that the first fan makes a pretty good food processor.

4

danimal207 t1_irr6j5k wrote

Pratt & Whitney has a facility in Canada where frozen turkeys are launched into running jet engines.

1

BobbyP27 t1_irsar0c wrote

Formerly frozen turkeys. They thaw them out before they fire the into the engines, as a large block of ice is rather more damaging to an engine than a bird. The bird ingestion test is part of the type approval for all aero-engines, not just P&W.

1