4 ms·
Disclaimer: Aviation hobbyist but not an expert. It depends on the size of the drone and where it hits. I am not sure how large these drones are, but if they
by DataJunkie 11y ago
Disclaimer: Aviation hobbyist but not an expert.
It depends on the size of the drone and where it hits.
I am not sure how large these drones are, but if they have the mass of a flock of large seagulls, say, it could disable an engine (like the US Airways jet).
A collision with a wing could cause substantial damage to the wing which would change the aerodynamics, and that could be potentially dangerous at low altitudes because of the neighborhoods underneath. Debris could fall from the sky and injure or kill someone. I doubt it would come close to tearing off a wing.
A collision with the fuselage could breach the cabin which is dangerous in itself, but would not cause a decompression at that altitude.
A collision with the windscreen of the flight deck would be dangerous for obvious reasons. In the minor case, it can blind the pilots temporarily. In the worst case, debris from the drone would incapacitate the pilot during the most dangerous phase of flight: landing or departure.
What is really dangerous is the speed at which the aircraft hits the mass of the drone. It may seem like the aircraft would just kill the drone, and that is probably the case with most drones, but if it has large mass, it wouldn't.
The most dangerous scenario is if a drone hits the control surface like the flaps (very important for landing), or the horizontal stabilizer in the tail, it could be disastrous.
- iofj 11y agoThe airflow would be trying to prevent a collision with the front of the wing, and a drone would simply go where the wind blows. Which is to say if a drone flew straight for an airplane wing, it would fly around the wing and suddenly explode in the massive turbulence behind the wing. This would look very surprising because to the naked eye there is nothing behind the wing. Hitting the fuselage, or entering an engine is probably more realistic. Both would be expensive, but won't be a threat to the passengers. Maybe hitting the wingtips would be doable ... not sure.
- nether 11y agoThere isn't really any "turbulence" behind any modern wing in typical flight regimes. They're very low drag, so flow off the trailing edge is as smooth as the upstream flow.
- throwaway_xx9 11y agoWell, except for those pesky wingtip vortices that can down a smaller airliner.
- nightski 11y agoThis was near landing, so I assume flaps were deployed. That changes things a bit.
- tzs 11y ago30 seconds of Googling turns up numerous examples of bird strikes on the leading edge of wings, some with very substantial damage. Why would airflow around the wing keep a drone from hitting it but not a bird?
- nether 11y agoNothing. Upstream flow stagnates at the leading edge, excess bug splatter there attests to that.
- mveety 11y agoIt can stagnate to the point of bugs not having much of an issue staying on the wing during flight. I remember a case when I was flight training where we had a little spider as a passenger on the top of the starboard wing for the duration of the flight. The little guy didn't fall off until the wing stalled out when we were landing.
- ajross 11y agoThat's a different effect. The region just above the surface is a turbulent boundary layer without much net flow. But it's very thin.
- hanniabu 11y agoAnybody know what the protocol is in the event of a blown out windshield/windscreen? Would the pilots be sucked out even at a low altitude such as 5k feet? Whether they are our aren't, how will the plane be landed?
- MaxScheiber 11y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_5390 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_5390
- hanniabu 11y agoThat is damn impressive on both pilot's accounts, thanks for the link