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?
Lufthansa jet and drone nearly collide near LAX
11–20 of 57 posts
Re: Lufthansa jet and drone nearly collide near LAX
#12This 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?
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.
Re: Lufthansa jet and drone nearly collide near LAX
#13This 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?
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 altitude…
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.
Re: Lufthansa jet and drone nearly collide near LAX
#14Yesterday, we had this article on YC [1], from some economist at the anti-regulation Mercatus Institute, claiming that a drone strike was very, very unlikely. That guy assumed that drones are distributed randomly across airspace. In practice, they tend to be near where people live, which means cities and airports. I posted the FAA's list of drone sightings near LAX yesterday. Today, this. The pilot of the aircraft, a…
"near miss" means coming up on 200 meters distance between two objects if > 400 meters up, otherwise it means whatever the tower decides it means (and presumably for them it means being in controlled airspace at all, e.g. having a drone above the airport building itself)
Re: Lufthansa jet and drone nearly collide near LAX
#15This 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?
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.
Re: Lufthansa jet and drone nearly collide near LAX
#16Yesterday, we had this article on YC [1], from some economist at the anti-regulation Mercatus Institute, claiming that a drone strike was very, very unlikely. That guy assumed that drones are distributed randomly across airspace. In practice, they tend to be near where people live, which means cities and airports. I posted the FAA's list of drone sightings near LAX yesterday. Today, this. The pilot of the aircraft, a…
Keep in mind that there are definitions for these terms. "near miss" means coming up on 200 meters distance between two objects if > 400 meters up, otherwise it means whatever the tower decides it means (and presumably for them it means being in controlled airspace at all, e.g. having a drone above the airport building itself)
Re: Lufthansa jet and drone nearly collide near LAX
#17This 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?
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 altitude…
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?
Re: Lufthansa jet and drone nearly collide near LAX
#18Yesterday, we had this article on YC [1], from some economist at the anti-regulation Mercatus Institute, claiming that a drone strike was very, very unlikely. That guy assumed that drones are distributed randomly across airspace. In practice, they tend to be near where people live, which means cities and airports. I posted the FAA's list of drone sightings near LAX yesterday. Today, this. The pilot of the aircraft, a…
Keep in mind that there are definitions for these terms. "near miss" means coming up on 200 meters distance between two objects if > 400 meters up, otherwise it means whatever the tower decides it means (and presumably for them it means being in controlled airspace at all, e.g. having a drone above the airport building itself)
Re: Lufthansa jet and drone nearly collide near LAX
#19This 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?
Re: Lufthansa jet and drone nearly collide near LAX
#20This 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?
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.
The aircraft operator will be looking for someone to stick with the repair bill. Each engine on the A-380 today costs about $13 million.
That's the good case. Here's a picture of an A-6E which crashed after an engine ingested a pencil-sized hex wrench.[1]