The Ruppell's Vulture can reach 11 km and can weigh 9kg. The Kori bustard can weigh 18kg. Many warplanes must break the sound barrier within reach of birds, especially on terrain hugging or sea skimming missions. How do they deal with the possibility of a bird causing structural damage or smashing the windshield?
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asked Feb 8 at 2:44
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3 Answers
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Mainly, it's in the category of "accepted risk". Warplanes accept lots of risks, like flying around in places where they might get shot at, and carrying large amounts of high explosives, that less risk-averse missions, like commercial airlines, would never accept. Flying low & fast is judged to contribute more to survival in a war-zone than flying placidly along at more bird-free & fuel-efficient altitudes and speeds, even given the hazards of hitting the birds.
Thick, heavy, carefully designed & tested windscreens and canopies serve to lessen the risks, as does having multiple engines and the option to trade airspeed for altitude to get away from the ground rapidly after taking damage from a bird strike, and there are ejection seats if the damage is too serious (but not immediately fatal, obviously).
But, after what steps that can be taken, have been taken, risk remains. And that risk is accepted as part of the military mission.
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Leading edges of wings on fighters are pretty sharp and rigid, so they take bird strikes in stride or at least with only minimal deformation, and windshields are designed to withstand projectiles, so same thing there.
The main risk of birds for fighters is ingestion into the engines, and this is a significant risk on a low level strike mission especially in a single engine fighter. Ingest a bird, and unless the design has a specific particle separation feature in its intake ducting that allows a bird to avoid the compressor/fan inlet, or an engine fan with blades that can tolerate a bird carcass strike, you will be ejecting.
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3$\begingroup$ An early astronaut Theodore Freeman died in just such a T-38 /goose strike. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 8 at 13:30
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fighter jet's rarely go supersonic except in combat conditions or immediate intercept orders. Most birds never fly higher than 500-1000 feet anyway, way below the "Hard deck" operating safety of most fighters. The real risk bird ingestion is at the runway/flight deck. It's simply aspect of calculated risk
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2$\begingroup$ re " Most birds never fly higher than 500-1000 feet anyway" -- wrong. Google diurnal soaring birds, nocturnal avian migration, etc. If you had phrased it "the majority of bird flight is below 1000'" you might be able to make a case for that but to say "most birds never..." is obviously completely wrong. But you miss the point of the original question in another way too, as it specifies "especially on terrain hugging or sea skimming missions"-- $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 4 at 17:04