Drone vs. aircraft wing testing

[FoxhallGH]

It would be easier for them to control Flocks of drones near airports, if that was an issue. BUT it is not, they only want the public to believe that it is.

And - unfortunately - the public is going to believe that it is, as long as they keep seeing YouTube video of airliners going by on airport flightpaths ...

 

[Dabrain]

In a test designed to mimic a midair collision at 238 miles per hour, researchers in UDRI’s Impact Physics group launched a 2.1-pound DJI Phantom 2 quadcopter at the wing of a Mooney M20 aircraft. The drone did not shatter on impact, but tore open the leading edge of the wing as it bore into the structure, damaging its main spar. “While the quadcopter broke apart, its energy and mass hung together to create significant damage to the wing,” said Kevin Poormon, group leader for impact physics at UDRI.

The Source of the story is here - University of Dayton Research Institute - Risk in the Sky? - sUAS News - The Business of Drones

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Take a baseball bat, shoot a one ounce lead ball at it going 268 miles per hour going to be damage to the bat. Take a once lead ball hit it with the bat going 268 mph, home run. I don't know of any uas's that can reach those speeds. Slightly misleading test.

 

[sar104]

Take a baseball bat, shoot a one ounce lead ball at it going 268 miles per hour going to be damage to the bat. Take a once lead ball hit it with the bat going 268 mph, home run. I don't know of any uas's that can reach those speeds. Slightly misleading test.

Your example is incorrect. It doesn't matter whether the bat or the ball, or both are moving - all that matters is their relative velocity at impact. It's one of the fundamental results of physics - velocity is relative, not absolute, and is purely determined by the frame of reference of the observer.

To illustrate - in your first case, if the experiment is conducted on an aircraft traveling at 268 mph and the ball is shot towards the back of the aircraft then, in the conventional earth frame of reference that you are using, the ball is stationary and the bat is moving at 268 mph - i.e. identical to your second case. Which outcome would you expect?

 

[FoxhallGH]

Take a baseball bat, shoot a one ounce lead ball at it going 268 miles per hour going to be damage to the bat. Take a once lead ball hit it with the bat going 268 mph, home run. I don't know of any uas's that can reach those speeds. Slightly misleading test.

Laws of Physics say that if you "take a baseball bat, shoot a one-ounce lead ball at it going 268 miles per hour there's going to be damage to the bat. Take a one-ounce lead ball and hit it with the bat going 268 mph, then you get the same damage to the bat!"
The only thing that may be argued about the drone v's wing test in this video, is that 268 mph is pretty much cruising speed for the aircraft in question (a Mooney M20), and therefore, would not be the speed that aircraft type would typically be doing in landing or take-off configuration - where it would be more likely to be in the same airspace and cause conflict (i.e. it would be very unlikely to find a Phantom 4 idling along at the cruising altitude of a Mooney M20).