Author: Gary Searing

Herding birds with Drones

Collisions with birds can threaten the integrity of airplanes and the safety of their passengers. Now scientists are developing ways to use drones to herd flocks of birds away from airports, potentially helping prevent dangerous bird strikes. Tough To Fool Collisions that birds and other wildlife have with aircraft cause more than $1.2 billion in
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Wide-eyed glare scares raptors

A new research paper published in the scientific journal PLoS One has found google eyes to be effective at reducing bird-on-plane collisions at airports. A team of scientists from Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the University of Rennes, with some help from the Airbus corporation, applied their knowledge of avian physiology to
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Shepherding birds with drones

Engineers at Caltech have developed a new control algorithm that enables a single drone to herd an entire flock of birds away from the airspace of an airport. The algorithm is presented in a study in IEEE Transactions on Robotics. The project was inspired by the 2009 “Miracle on the Hudson,” when US Airways Flight 1549
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Wildlife Hazards at US AIrports

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials have updated the protocol for reviewing wildlife hazards at US airports, including a ranking of wildlife by the level of threat that they pose to flights. The rankings published in a recent Advisory Circular (AC) intend to guide airport wildlife management personnel and inspectors in prioritizing the wildlife that should
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Talon crash in Oklahoma

Date: 17-AUG-2018 Time: 13:41 LT Type: Northrop T-38 Talon Owner/operator: US Air Force (USAF)/71st Flying Training Wing Registration: 68-8206 C/n / msn: Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 Other fatalities: 0 Aircraft damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: near Mutual, OK –    United States of America Phase: En route Nature: Military Departure airport: Vance AFB
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Bird strike damage liability

Introduction On 7 March 2018 the Supreme Court for Administrative Law heard a case where no choice needed to be made – an airplane engine and a bird had collided and met their respective fates. Bird strikes are not uncommon in civil aviation: every year there are approximately 5,000 to 6,000 incidents costing $1.2 billion
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