Weird World War 2 Facts

[plan_D]

There is actually such thing as rabbit strike. When one is stupid enough to be on the runway when an aircraft is landing or taking off. It's never too healthy for the undercarriage - a bit messy too, I'm told. Several Lightnings took rabbit strikes to their undercarriage - at a 190 MPH landing speed, the rabbit doesn't have much a chance to get out of the way.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Damn that would suck. Bird strikes suck pretty bad. We had one go through the center windscreen at 150kts. You heard a really loud pop and then a large splatter of blood everywhere and then a poof of feathers all through the cockpit and cabin. The passengers thought we had been hit and the crew wounded because there was blood everywhere and they were screaming. It sucked but I could do nothing but laugh afterwards.

 

[Nonskimmer]

If the crew had been hit, how would they explain the cloud of feathers?

 

[FLYBOYJ]

When I was working Flight for Life, my helicopter got a birdstrike a year before I started. The crew was transporting a baby, a Hawk just missed the flight nurse's head! The pilot, an old Viet Nam Loach pilot landed the heicopter on a football field with no further damage. The heilcopter was repaied and put back into service. When I was woking there and pulling major inspections, once and awhile I would still find feathers!

 

[Nonskimmer]

God bless the old timers.

 

[plan_D]

In the Nimrod station in RAF Finningley they used to have pictures of aircraft that had landed after bird strikes - they can cause some serious damage! Wings with massive holes in them, engines ripped to shreds, tails almost cut in half! If anyone is wondering why there was a Nimrod at Finningley (which you're probably not) it's what they trained AWACs flight crews - Finningley became a training base - and then add Nimrod to the list of aircraft my dad has worked on.

An airliner landed here yesterday (at the airport - yes, we have an airport! ) that suffered a bird strike to the tail. They had to replace the whole leading section of the tail because of a massive dint in it.

 

[wmaxt]

An airliner landed here yesterday (at the airport - yes, we have an airport! ) that suffered a bird strike to the tail. They had to replace the whole leading section of the tail because of a massive dint in it.

A number of years ago here at Mountain Home AFB, there was a F-4 Phantom that had a bird srike which destroyed the canopy and severly injured the pilot. The RIO managed to land the aircraft safely without throttle control but it was a very close thing.

wmaxt

 

[plan_D]

They test every single airliner windscreen by firing a pigeon at it at 400 knots with a gas powered cannon. If it cracks - the windscreen fails, just to avoid any thing like that ever happening.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

They test every single airliner windscreen by firing a pigeon at it at 400 knots with a gas powered cannon. If it cracks - the windscreen fails, just to avoid any thing like that ever happening.

STORY-TIME: When I worked for Lockheed, I used to audit purchase orders for procurement requirements and someone was buying 2 dozen chickens, so naturally I question this....

The engineer who wanted these items told me they were for testing of a new L1011 windshield configuration being offered to operators as an optional service bulletin, so naturally they had to used the chicken for the bird strike testing.

The first round of testing didn't go to well. The company hired by Lockheed to conduct the test used an old Locomotive as a test platform for the newly designed windshield. (Apparently the dimensions of the locomotives windshield was similar to the 1011s). When they fired the first "bird" at the windshield, it crashed through the plexiglass and frame, broke the "pilot's seat back off the rest of the chair and went through the bulkhead behind the "pilot." It turned out the chickens were frozen, no one told the test engineers to defrost them for the tests! Believe it or not these brainiacks did it again and destroyed both windshield test assemblies before they realized something was wrong!

 

[Nonskimmer]

Ah, engineers! They can tell you the square root of a pickle jar, but damned if they know how to get the lid off!

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

that story's brilliant.........

 

[FLYBOYJ]

that story's brilliant.........

The whole program was put 2 months behind schedule because of the frozen chickens!

 

[trackend]

Perhaps they where trying to cover all the bases and thinking of birds that could fly too fifty thousand feet then suffer from frost bite.

 

[evangilder]

I had heard that story before, but with a slightly different twist. It's funny either way! So the moral of the stroy, FBJ is while flying, avoid the frozen chickens!

 

[FLYBOYJ]

3 things I lay claim to being involved with in my aviation career....

1. The frozen chicken

2. the $700.00 P-3 toliet seat

3. B-2 #5 AKA "Christine"

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

If the crew had been hit, how would they explain the cloud of feathers?

That is why I was laughing. They obvioulsy were so scared that they did not even think it could have been a bird.

 

[cheddar cheese]

Im sure ive heard that story before too, great

 

[FLYBOYJ]

The chickhen story spread like wildfire after I heard about it.....

The P-3 toilet seat was a one piece fiberglass fire-resistant assembly. It was a seat and cover combined, about the size of a medium size TV. It actually costs $670.00 with a 10% profit margin. When the media got a hold of this story they so twisted it around it was criminal. Lockheed actually overcharged the government about $35.00

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

The companies overcharge the government all the time though. A bolt that costs 10 cents to make they sell for 10 dollars.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Yep! I heard a story where Boeing wanted to charge the Air Force $800.00 for a kit of washers used to put seats on the KC-135. An enterprising mechanic drilled holes in pennys and used them for the washers!