Are those Airplane designing engineers that stupid?
Posted by James on July 24, 2011 · 4 Comments
Question by wo: Are those Airplane designing engineers that stupid?
* Events of Airplane accidents involving birds are so common.
* I believe the designing Engineers are so stupid not to realize that suitable grills/metal nets are so important to be provided to the engine’s front, so to prevent various type of birds from filtering through causing plane damages or crashes.
* This solution is the simplest thing comes on any sound minded person.
*** If grill fitting is not the solution (which I don’t believe! ) then please explain why?
Best answer:
Answer by Sparky
to make a grille small enough to keep out birds, it would reduce the efficiency of the engine so much it would not be economical to fly the plane. by reducing the airflow into the engine with such a grille, the engine would have to be much larger to obtain the same thrust.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
Putting a grill onto the front of an aircraft engine presents far more problems than it solves. It would need a grill with a mesh strong enough that when the plane is moving at 400 miles per hour, a bird will not destroy it and send it into the engine. Also the grill needs to be tight enough to not allow bird parts to get through.
The buildup of ice is a huge problem and cause aircraft to be grounded on a regular basis. At present, a grill would ground any aircraft it was mounted onto. Even in the summer, the temperature at high altitudes can cause icing. Ice builds up on the leading edges and that would include the entire exposed grill surface. De-icing fluids are used whenever possible with limited effect.
Other problems include fuel economy and debris that is caught by the grill, slowing or stopping the air intake.
Perhaps what is needed is a force field that will only allow air to pass through but, it hasn’t been invented yet.
.
Aircraft designers are not stupid. Grills are not the solution to bird strikes and grills can give rise to other problems, like the grill getting into the engine or the grill itself becoming blocked, either of which is far worse than the bird strike.
Bird strikes are not that common and rarely cause problems. No doubt the investigation into the Hudson River incident will include all the relevant statistics and possible actions to avoid repetition, but in the meantime when you fly hope that you have a pilot the calibre of Captain Sullenberger in charge.
They’re not stupid.
They have placed a device in the center of the intake to help the birds see the engine & hopefully avoid them.
They have also place a variety of bird deterrents around airports.
Hmmm… the answers provided above no doubt opened your eyes to some of the other considerations. I might add that loss in air flow to an engine by a goose or geese stuck in a net or birds sliced up by a grill will probably have similar undesirable consequences in the ability of a jet engine to perfrom as intended. A friend once told me about testing GE did with thier engines where they would throw frozen chickens into engines to see what they could do to make them more bird-proof. When you consider the cost of an engine, that is some expensive testing and an indicator that much research has been done.
Perhaps if you are a student of engineering, before being so quick to condemn prior engineers, you should look into the problem and see if you can actually solve it.
If you can, BRAVO! Push the art.
If you cannot, LEARN!
Assimilator