Bird Strikes and Chicken Wire
By sconibear
@sconibear (8016)
United States
January 17, 2009 8:40am CST
so, i was watching the news this morning, and they were talking about the plane landing in the Hudson River in NY.
and they were talking about bird strikes and what a danger they are to airplanes.
then, they showed footage of an airplane taking off in England, and the right engine was shooting out flames as a formerly large flock of birds was being sucked into it.
all of a sudden my girlfriend, bless her little heart, says "why don't they just put a screen over the front of the engine?"
[b]
*DING DING DING LIGHT BULB OVER HEAD DING DING DING*[/b] 
so what do you say, any logical reason they don't just put some kind of chicken wire screen on the intake side of their million dollar high tech jet engine???
think chicken wire would make them look too redneck???
*LEGAL NOTIFICATION: if anyone uses this idea and makes a gob of money, PM me for details on where to send my 25% finders fee*
so what do you say, any logical reason they don't just put some kind of chicken wire screen on the intake side of their million dollar high tech jet engine???
think chicken wire would make them look too redneck???
*LEGAL NOTIFICATION: if anyone uses this idea and makes a gob of money, PM me for details on where to send my 25% finders fee*5 people like this
13 responses
@Little_Stormy (6883)
• United States
17 Jan 09
I thought the same thing bout the screen!!
so count me in the 25% finders fee thingy!
once again, a little answer isn't allowed on here so just pretend I'm still answering the question on a counta I want people to think I'm smart and that I have a long drawn out Scientific answer and so I'm filling space. you don't even have to read this space filler, that's ok.. cause it doesn't matter at all. I think I now have enough to make me look smart, don't you think? oh wait! you aren't reading this so I have to judge myself, yeah! looks like enough to me.. now I'm gonna go for the big finish...
AND that's what I think, Bear!
1 person likes this
@Little_Stormy (6883)
• United States
17 Jan 09
well Chit! people!!!! DRIVE TO WHERE YER GOING!!!!
dayum lazy people!
I'm gonna drive to Hawaii!
1 person likes this
@Little_Stormy (6883)
• United States
18 Jan 09
yeah! but it'll be ok!
*sigh*
I shore miss that bear dude 
1 person likes this
@riyasam (16556)
• India
17 Jan 09
i put the question to my hubby,thinking he can answer as i am not at i am not at all logical.his answer was,i am not an aeronautical engineer to give the answer.
i guess i an not going to get that 25%. and to think,yesterday,i dreamt of becoming rich!!
i guess i an not going to get that 25%. and to think,yesterday,i dreamt of becoming rich!!@sconibear (8016)
• United States
18 Jan 09
well maybe you can send hubby to aeronautical engineer school.
then you might be eligible for the 25% of MY 25%.
@polachicago (18716)
• United States
17 Jan 09
I think it is impossible to make it happen. Your idea is very good, but I am sure was already rejected in real life. I am not engine builder, but just looking into the way the engine is working make me think that chicken wire is not strong enough....
BTW...bear is overdressed....
@sconibear (8016)
• United States
18 Jan 09
actually, i was thinking about it in the shower, and even if the screen or whatever was strong enough, it would still suck birds to it and they would just all stick to the outside blocking airflow.
i guess that's why after a hundred years of manned flight, no one has tried it.
back to the ol' drawing board.
@Sissygrl (10912)
• Canada
17 Jan 09
I have no idea.. but there must be some reason why they can't do that if they have not done it yet.. does it really happen that often ? wouldnt the sound of the jets scare the birds enough they should be ducking... haha ducking birds.. nm..
I have no idea. but i like your new bear. he's rockin. lol
@sconibear (8016)
• United States
18 Jan 09
hahaha ducking birds,,,,,what a turkey.....that really gets my goose going.
1 person likes this
@moonlitmagikchild (22181)
• United States
18 Jan 09
i heard on the news that if they put a grate over it then it makes it to where it cant suck in enough air and slows the engines down..
@sconibear (8016)
• United States
18 Jan 09
yeah....seems that's what a majority of responders thought too.
oh well, back to the ol' drawing board.
@guybrush (4658)
• Australia
18 Jan 09
That is actually such an excellent idea it beggars belief why it's not done. There surely must be some kind of high-tech mesh which could be fixed over the front of the engines without interfering with air flow, etc. Redneck be damned - it probably looks a bit redneck when you have feathers flying out of the thing, too - like a pheasant plucker's picnic!
@sconibear (8016)
• United States
18 Jan 09
yeah....looks like most members think a screen would have the same effect as the grill on your car.......only instead of being all mushy with bugs, it would be all mushy with bird parts....restricting air flow.
but it was a good idea while it lasted.
@JoyfulOne (6232)
• United States
17 Jan 09
You know, I was thinking along the same lines while watching the news this morning. Not chicken wire, but heavier (and skinnier) metal strips. They need some kind of a screen device to keep the birds out of the intakes. I was surprised that in 2007 there were 300 + incidents of flock birds getting into the intakes during flight, and they said the incidence is rising due to more birds of flight and flocking. Hopefully, they will figure something out to prevent this kind of thing from happening again. I'm sure the airline industry will have to keep working on this to increase safety.
@sconibear (8016)
• United States
18 Jan 09
all it takes is a little brain storming.....kinda like we've got going on here.
@Eskimo (2315)
•
17 Jan 09
I thought of something like this a few years ago, problem is that the mesh would clog up with small things like insects, and the exact same problem would happen. Remember that from the front the engines just behave like a giant vacuum cleaner sucking up everything in its path, including insects, small birds and larger ones like Geese.
Maybe something like a rotating set of sharp blades at the front, to cut up everything into small pieces first may make a difference.
@sconibear (8016)
• United States
18 Jan 09
you might be on to something with a set of blades.
i'd just hate to be the person that has to clean up the runway......and the airplane.
@seabeauty (1480)
• United States
18 Jan 09
Sounds like a great idea. It would save the birds and the passengers.
@twoey68 (13627)
• United States
17 Jan 09
I was reading about that this morning too and thought the same thing. You'd think with all the hundreds of thousands spent on developing that they could come up with a whistle or something to mount on the planes to drive birds out of the way (they have a simular thing for cars that work on deers). I was really sad this morning to hear about the "thousands" of birds that are killed by airplanes...it's horrible.
[b]**AT PEACE WITHIN**
~~STAND STRONG IN YOUR BELIEFS~~[/b]
@sconibear (8016)
• United States
18 Jan 09
yeah, you might be on to something with some kind of whistle, but i think the jet engines would be too loud for it to be effective.
@pyewacket (43903)
• United States
17 Jan 09
Your girlfriend isn't the only one who thought of this idea, I thought of it too.
I would think any kind of heavy metal screening type thing placed in front of the plane's engines would be a simply, uncomplicated idea and plan to prevent bird strikes from damaging the engine. So like duh? Why don't they? So...how about you, your girlfriend and me design something, patent it, present it to the aviation board and become billionaires
I would think any kind of heavy metal screening type thing placed in front of the plane's engines would be a simply, uncomplicated idea and plan to prevent bird strikes from damaging the engine. So like duh? Why don't they? So...how about you, your girlfriend and me design something, patent it, present it to the aviation board and become billionaires@sconibear (8016)
• United States
18 Jan 09
yeah, it's looking like most responders have come up with the conclusion that any type of screen would act like a bug covered grill on your car.......only it would be a bird covered screen on an airplane.
it would restrict too much airflow.
back to the drawing board.
@Opal26 (17679)
• United States
18 Jan 09
Hey sconi! Wow! What a brilliant idea! Your girlfriend, who
is also one of my good friends is a genius! Maybe those high
techy people never thought of such a simple thing like that!
Why don't they do that? There must be some way to make sure
that the birds don't get sucked into the engines since that
is such a big and dangerous problem! You would think that they
would be more concerned in looking for a way to fix it instead
of letting more and more aircrafts have to almost crash and
burn! I do think you should write to those dumb azzes with
this wonderful idea and collect your "finders fee" for the
patent!
@sconibear (8016)
• United States
18 Jan 09
hi Opal....yes she must be a genius.....just look who she ended up with.
@nielbullock (54)
• United States
18 Jan 09
I think that the birds would just bust through. I the case of the Canadian geese, they weigh around ten pounds. I understand that at those speeds, it would be like hitting something that was one thousand pounds. I have heard that other parts of the planes can be damaged by these impacts as well.
