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What happens when a drone gets ingested by an aircraft engine, FAA ready to conduct live test . . .

BigAl07

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I saw a test years back in a ground school where they tossed a frozen turkey into an engine. Engine ate it up. I’d imagine a single small drone like any of the Mavics wouldn’t cause a shutdown. Could definitely damage some fan blades and cause for repair/inspection.
 
I saw a test years back in a ground school where they tossed a frozen turkey into an engine. Engine ate it up. I’d imagine a single small drone like any of the Mavics wouldn’t cause a shutdown. Could definitely damage some fan blades and cause for repair/inspection.


Keep in mind that UAV/UAS is a much larger group than just Mavics and we will all suffer or prosper as one.
 
My concern would be the 4 or more engines that by design are very solid, having the equivalent of small rocks hitting the turbine blades. The speeds involved as well as the required force to move lumps of metal out of the blades make damage inevitable. As many of the newer turbines use ceramic blades I can see nothing but major damage. Visions of a bull in a china shop come to mind!
 
Mmm, with the apparent ban on government use of DJI Drones, maybe we’ll have the opportunity to see one of DJI’s competitors getting chewed up. ;-)
 
I agree that they should test it However I am not volunteering to let them use my drone...
 
Frankly I don’t see the benefit. It’s blatantly clear nothing good will come from it. Engine damage, however minor, will ground the plane for repairs. With the evidence no doubt chopped up and lost there’s no way to identify whose drone it was. It’s the government looking for an excuse to say “We told you this would happen!” And ultimately justify yet more regulations. It’s already established you stay away from airports. But there’s always the idiot that doesn’t. You can’t legislate human behavior.
 
Keep in mind that UAV/UAS is a much larger group than just Mavics and we will all suffer or prosper as one.
I agree with your statement that we will all suffer or prosper as one, however I know for a fact that if I jump off a cliff, the result will not be good, similarly if I fire several blocks of steel into a running jet turbine I can expect devastating results. Will they be firing several various sizes of drones into the turbine as a $20 Walmart toy compared to a professional multi bladed drone with a pro camera and gimbal are two totally different drones.
 
Modern jet-motors are pretty sensible. A drone would cause sever damage to the turbine blades, which is an expensive thing. The motor has to be changed, which will cause a 24 hours delay for the airplane. Your liability insurance would definitly not be happy, you probably would have to find another one after they settle this claim.
 
Frankly I don’t see the benefit. It’s blatantly clear nothing good will come from it. Engine damage, however minor, will ground the plane for repairs. With the evidence no doubt chopped up and lost there’s no way to identify whose drone it was. It’s the government looking for an excuse to say “We told you this would happen!” And ultimately justify yet more regulations. It’s already established you stay away from airports. But there’s always the idiot that doesn’t. You can’t legislate human behavior.
Agreed, 100 percent. Common sense already tells us what could happen.
 
I saw a test years back in a ground school where they tossed a frozen turkey into an engine. Engine ate it up. I’d imagine a single small drone like any of the Mavics wouldn’t cause a shutdown. Could definitely damage some fan blades and cause for repair/inspection.
I can’t help but think ok, drop a frozen turkey on the ground, what will it do? It won’t break or shatter into pieces. But the majority of plastic drones with tiny metal pieces would be obliterated. I think a frozen turkey would cause more damage.
 
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I can’t help but think ok, drop a frozen turkey on the ground, what will it do? It won’t break or shatter into pieces. But the majority of plastic drones with tiny metal pieces would be obliterated. I think a frozen turkey would cause more damage.

Rolls Royce still use frozen turkeys. Not that they’re ever likely to encounter one on the runway or in the air but they are easy to load into the canon.
 
Rolls Royce still use frozen turkeys. Not that they’re ever likely to encounter one on the runway or in the air but they are easy to load into the canon.
The original RR had bird problems.
For instance, while Rolls Royce was in the final stages of developing their early RB211 turbofan engine, the engine failed certification-required bird-ingestion tests, leading to the bankruptcy of the company in 1971.
From Keeping Birds Out of Jet Engines

My MM would not survive but the jet engine probably would.
 
Modern jet-motors are pretty sensible. A drone would cause sever damage to the turbine blades, which is an expensive thing. The motor has to be changed, which will cause a 24 hours delay for the airplane. Your liability insurance would definitly not be happy, you probably would have to find another one after they settle this claim.
I dont agree. At worst case maybe but more realistic not a blade change or two and a boroscope maybe if there is evidence of hot section injestion. These drones are actually pretty flimsy and I would hazard at a guess a bit of profile deformation of the blade.
 
I dont agree. At worst case maybe but more realistic not a blade change or two and a boroscope maybe if there is evidence of hot section injestion. These drones are actually pretty flimsy and I would hazard at a guess a bit of profile deformation of the blade.

With the insanely tight tolerances within the turbine itself, it doesn't take a whole lot of interference to cause significant internal failures. A single blade detaching or deforming can have start the chain reaction causing the engine to destroy itself in a matter of milliseconds.

Here's a low quality video that shows what "could" happen when a blade detaches:

In the early 90's I worked for a company that produced jet engine components for many big name corps and I saw first hand what losing a single blade can do to the assembly. Granted they are designed to "Contain" the damage (hopefully) the damage is very REAL and very EXPENSIVE.
 
With the insanely tight tolerances within the turbine itself, it doesn't take a whole lot of interference to cause significant internal failures. A single blade detaching or deforming can have start the chain reaction causing the engine to destroy itself in a matter of milliseconds.

Here's a low quality video that shows what "could" happen when a blade detaches:

In the early 90's I worked for a company that produced jet engine components for many big name corps and I saw first hand what losing a single blade can do to the assembly. Granted they are designed to "Contain" the damage (hopefully) the damage is very REAL and very EXPENSIVE.
Well having been a Senior Engineer at a maor airline for over 42 years and assessing damage on an almost daily basis I stand by my original comments.
 
Sitting in an airplane on Frankfurt Airport, we were looking through the window as we saw something being sucked into the engine. Not a big thing, they said it was a bird, but the result was fabulous: Lots of smoke, immediat shutdown of the engines and, happy passengers, a new airplane - which took a moment to arrive, to be loaded and us boarding again. Was a fun start of our journey.

Now, I just figute that if a smal thing like a bird can cause this damage, a drone defintly can cause even more damage. Birds are softer then drones, so it is not hard to imagine the difference. Having seen this, I can imagine the concerns airlines and safetyauthorities have in regards of a drone meeting an airplane.. Yes, the chance might be small, but we all know how irresponsible some droneys are.
 
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