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Lufthansa jet and drone nearly collide near LAX

latimes.com

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Re: Lufthansa jet and drone nearly collide near LAX

#31

Post by mveety »

nether wrote: post #25
tzs wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

30 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?

Nothing. Upstream flow stagnates at the leading edge, excess bug splatter there attests to that.

It 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.

Re: Lufthansa jet and drone nearly collide near LAX

#32

Post by chx »

A few more of this and realistic or not and the FAA will ban any drones in a significant radius of any aerodome effectively ending most drone activity.

The Canadians already did. https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/3h2e8t/for_all_o... you want to fly a drone here in Vancouver, you better get a permit. The fines start at $1000 and they are finding people.

Re: Lufthansa jet and drone nearly collide near LAX

#33

Post by zyxley »

szx wrote: post #9

This might be a naive question, but what would happen if a hobby drone collided with a jet? As long as it doesn't hit the engines, wouldn't the damage be negligible?

Remember the speed differentials involved here. Landing speed for large passenger jets is fast.

Picture a 5-pound drone hitting a stationary plane at 250 miles per hour and ask if the damage would be "negligible".

Re: Lufthansa jet and drone nearly collide near LAX

#34

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

tanishq1 wrote: post #12
cptskippy wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would imagine hitting the engine is probably the safest thing that could happen. The engines are made of titanium alloys and designed to not fail catastrophically. The rest of the aircraft is made of soft materials by comparison.

And even in the event of an engine failure, they could still probably land safely.

So flying drones in flight paths is fine, gotcha.

Re: Lufthansa jet and drone nearly collide near LAX

#36

Post by ajross »

mveety wrote: post #31
nether wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing. Upstream flow stagnates at the leading edge, excess bug splatter there attests to that.

It 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.

That's a different effect. The region just above the surface is a turbulent boundary layer without much net flow. But it's very thin.

Re: Lufthansa jet and drone nearly collide near LAX

#37

Post by baby »

zyxley wrote: post #33
szx wrote: post #9

This might be a naive question, but what would happen if a hobby drone collided with a jet? As long as it doesn't hit the engines, wouldn't the damage be negligible?

Remember the speed differentials involved here. Landing speed for large passenger jets is fast . Picture a 5-pound drone hitting a stationary plane at 250 miles per hour and ask if the damage would be "negligible".

So you mean the drone would be destroyed.

Re: Lufthansa jet and drone nearly collide near LAX

#38

Post by x5n1 »

zyxley wrote: post #33
szx wrote: post #9

This might be a naive question, but what would happen if a hobby drone collided with a jet? As long as it doesn't hit the engines, wouldn't the damage be negligible?

Remember the speed differentials involved here. Landing speed for large passenger jets is fast . Picture a 5-pound drone hitting a stationary plane at 250 miles per hour and ask if the damage would be "negligible".

Would not expect it to be any worse than a bird strike, which I hear are common enough. Eventually the firmware of the drone would know to avoid airplanes at all cost and perhaps have some sort of equipment in there to limit them ever flying close to airplanes. The regulation should ideally force this, for drones to have sensors and firmware to avoid airplanes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_strike

Re: Lufthansa jet and drone nearly collide near LAX

#39

Post by dumbguy »

szx wrote: post #9

This might be a naive question, but what would happen if a hobby drone collided with a jet? As long as it doesn't hit the engines, wouldn't the damage be negligible?

One word, birds. We hit them frequently, and a goose weighs a lot more than most drones. This is panicking over shark attacks while commuting in your car while smoking cigarettes. Sure we need to set limits, but most of this is FUD.

Re: Lufthansa jet and drone nearly collide near LAX

#40

Post by vectorjohn »

tanishq1 wrote: post #12
cptskippy wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would imagine hitting the engine is probably the safest thing that could happen. The engines are made of titanium alloys and designed to not fail catastrophically. The rest of the aircraft is made of soft materials by comparison.

And even in the event of an engine failure, they could still probably land safely.

"probably" sounds really good for a commercial airliner. For some idiot to fly a drone around an airport.
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