nose area (radome) badly damaged by bird-hit ~ not an angry bird !!

An aeroplane continues to be a marvel – many of us still look to sky on hearing the sound ~nearer Airports, you could find people standing to watch the flight descending or take off. 

The aluminium flying bird is of complex design – the primary factors in  aircraft structures are strength, weight, and reliability. These factors determine the requirements to be met by any material used to construct or repair the aircraft. Airframes  have to be  strong and light in weight.  The most common metals used in aircraft construction are aluminum, magnesium, titanium, steel, and their alloys.  Earlier aluminium was widely used in subsonic aircraft.  Currently a greater amount of titanium is incorporated in to aircraft. This is connected with the fact that the share of the composite materials with which aluminium intensively interacts and corrodes in the new airplanes is being increased. Titanium is not subjected to these processes and results in increasing the life of components.

 ~- ~ You are given a slingshot to fire your angry birds at pigs who are placed within different variant  structures (such as wood, ice and stone) which progressively get harder and retrieve the eggs that those pesky pigs stole!.... as you advance, you get chance to use varied birds with special abilities.  A blue bird when clicked will split into 3 – there are birds which will explode – some which can drop explosive eggs … there are smaller and larger pigs – the challenge is to destroy all pigs with the available birds – if you use less, you get bonus points … some pigs wear helmets as armour, making them even more resistant to damage, while pigs with crowns can take the most damage.  It is the  popular ‘Angry Birds’, a strategy game developed by Finnish computer game developer Rovio Mobile – and that is  ‘bird hit !’

Even though, large  commercial aircrafts  are certified to be able to withstand the impact of most,  we often hear about bird-hits damaging planes.  Birds represent a serious  threat at many airports.  Not all cause serious damage to aircraft hull.   According to Birdstrike Committee USA, bird and other wildlife strikes to aircraft result in over $600 million in damage to US civil and military aviation each year. The lives of the crew and passengers are also at risk.  Bird strikes most often occur during take-off or landing, or during low altitude flight, when an airplane is most likely to be sharing the same airspace as a bird.

Take-offs can be particularly dangerous, given the higher speeds and the angle of ascent. If a bird gets caught in an engine during take-off it can greatly affect the functionality of the engine.  Apart from damage, in Dec  2014   Jet Airways flight from Mumbai to Kathmandu  had to make an  emergency landing after a bird hit damaged its left wing, causing sparks. 

By seeing it, have perceived the aircraft hull to be strong – here is something read in MailOnline on how aircraft’s nose collapsed after bird flew into Turkish Airlines plane carrying 125 passengers ~and the photos of damage look incredible.

The Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Nevşehir in Turkey was on approach to land when it was involved in a severe hit with an unlucky bird. There were 125 passengers on board the Boeing 737-800, and there were not believed to be any injuries suffered on the landing on Tuesday.  By the impact with the bird, the nose cone was flattened.  The extent of the damage has surprised many after the photos were posted on Twitter.  The pilot relayed the incident to air traffic control, and two other flights scheduled to land had to abort and perform a go-around.

The nose cone, splattered with blood, showed extensive damage, and the aircraft was towed to a hangar for maintenance.  As the photos were shared on Twitter by @Flight-Report, users expressed their shock at the level of damage on the aircraft. One wrote: 'This is a donkey strike not a bird strike,' while @annispice asked the question: 'What was it a pterodactyl!'  another queried – was it a dragon ?

A spokesperson for Turkish Airlines told MailOnline Travel: 'The damage of the nose area (radome) by bird hit is a common incident on civil aeronautical operations.  'The radome area of a plane is constructed by soft materials (composit) to minimalize the impact of such hits. 'Therefore, such standard/normal deformation occurs as a natural result of such incidents. 'One can also state that the critical bird hits in aviation is the ones that occur on the engine area. Any other area of the aircraft than the engine area, such as radome, wings, hull, do not pose a risk when hit by a bird.'

Despite the bird-strike, the plane landed safely on the runway and there are not thought to be any injuries to the 145 passengers on board.

 With regards – S. Sampathkumar

7^th May 2015.