Article Summary: 'When feathers meet metal'

The article ‘When feathers meet metal’ was published on Economist.com on January 23^rd 2009. The link to the article is: http://www.economist.com/research/articlesbysubject/displaystory.cfm?subjectid=348924&story_id=13002454

The extraordinary emergency landing on the Hudson River of US Airways flight 1549, which all 155 passengers survived, has raised concerns about the cause of the plane’s engines failure: bird-plane collisions. Though over the past 20 years, ‘only’ 219 people have died due to bird collisions in American airspace, this risk has to be lessened further. Yet is there a global method for keeping birds away from planes?

Most bird strikes on planes occur during takeoff or landing, 60% of all collisions occurring at below 100 feet. Commonly small birds such as doves or larks are involved, posing no threat to the aircraft. However, to further reduce the possibility of bird interference, the runways at airports have to remain bird free.

Legislators have proposed screens that would be installed over the engine intakes, preventing birds from being sucked in and causing them to fail by, for example, shattering the fans. However, these screens would be sucked in by the engines and therefore would be more dangerous than a collision with a bird. Furthermore, if a bird got stuck in the intake grill, the interruption of air flow would cause the engine to stall as well. Past methods of keeping birds separate from planes include gas canons, pyrotechnics, lasers, ultra-sound, etc. Pulsing lights have, according to Precise Flight (aviation safety company), halved the number of bird air strikes. More expensive and therefore not viable solutions include stripping the surrounding area of all nature and covering it with tarmac; a lack of food and shelter would mean no birds. Decoys such as scarecrows are only effective for so long, until the birds grow accustomed to them, considering them as part of their natural environment. Natural predators would only be effective if trained properly.

On the whole, keeping birds away from planes really depends on the location of the airport; its natural surroundings and resources determine which method(s) would work most effectively. You could just hire a guy with a shotgun.