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Boeing 737 Passenger Jet Damaged in Possible Midair Drone Hit (bloomberg.com)
Grupo Aeromexico SAB is investigating whether a drone slammed into a Boeing Co. 737 jetliner as the aircraft approached its destination in Tijuana, Mexico, on the U.S. border. From a report: Images on local media showed considerable damage to the nose of the 737-800, which was operating Wednesday as Flight 773 from Guadalajara. In a cabin recording, crew members can be heard saying they heard a "pretty loud bang" and asking the control tower to check if the nose was damaged. The collision happened shortly before landing. "The exact cause is still being investigated," Aeromexico said in a statement. "The aircraft landed normally and the passengers' safety was never compromised."
The potential drone strike stoked fears that the rising use of uncrewed aircraft will endanger planes filled with passengers. While most nations prohibit drones from flying in pathways reserved for airliners, the millions of small consumer devices that have been purchased around the world can't be tracked on radar, making it difficult for authorities to enforce the rules. In addition, many users don't know the rules or don't follow them.
The potential drone strike stoked fears that the rising use of uncrewed aircraft will endanger planes filled with passengers. While most nations prohibit drones from flying in pathways reserved for airliners, the millions of small consumer devices that have been purchased around the world can't be tracked on radar, making it difficult for authorities to enforce the rules. In addition, many users don't know the rules or don't follow them.
Nothing else flies in the air.
One solution might be to put in noise sensors around airports, drone flight noise is fairly distinctive and loud (especially for anything heavy enough to cause any real damage). Once you know a drone is there, you can use a number fo drone counter-measures to remove it.
I also figure at this point any commercial drone has enough parts in it that can be traced back to the owner, that any drone hit will lead to them finding you and presumably a lot of jail time. We should publicize that part more.
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Or.... and I'm just throwing this out there...
You prohibit drones flying in air corridors (is that what they're called?) and you strictly enforce it with hefty fines or jail time. What's the difference between someone catapulting a rock into a 737 vs. a drone?
5kg isn't really a problem.
Drones capable of doing work weigh considerably more than 5kg. You're looking at a mass more like 50kg, possibly quite a bit more:
Drone Weight Article
Realistically you're not going to armor the front of a jetliner to withstand a strike against something as heavy as a person at eighty meters per second.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
The number of youtube views.
Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
So many idiots out there, I guarantee that a drone will take out a airliner eventually. Then the whole drone industry will be subject to major lawsuits. This will only get worse as drones become more popular and owned by more idiots.
Dude, if you had a channel that was nothing but Catapult vs. Airliner battles, you would be the highest paid YouTuber ever.
The FAA actually has a pretty decent infrastructure and plan for this, it's called ADS-B. By the end of 2019 all manned aircraft that fly in US airspace are to have these transponders.
If drones had these then anyone would be able to get the registration data directly from nearby drones, so you could see who the peeping toms flying around your neighborhood are, in real-time, on a map.
It's just a matter of time before any drone capable of interacting with the national airspace system will be required to have such a transponder. Along with that expect inspection and compliance requirements - just like for manned aircraft. You want to take to the sky outside of class G airspace - then prove your craft is compliant. Manned aircraft are inspected at least once per year, commercial craft more often, based on hourly inspection requirements. Hobbyist drone operators should probably also be trained, tested, and required to show competency at least, oh, once every two years, to prove you even know what class G airspace is, and maybe a certificate of training of some kind.
Take your drone to class G airspace and stay there and below 400 feet - do whatever you want. With a functioning transponder. Enjoy the sky, but please realize you aren't alone up there.
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The last drone panic with startling pictures of the damage turned out to be a goose. Of course, "oops, it was a goose" didn't make the big headlines. That was strictly back page news.
Of course, our only source is Bloomberg, so it might have been a secret Chinese spy goose.
can't be tracked on radar
Wanna bet? You just need a better radar...
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It's about on par with the damage you see from bird strikes, and they weigh about the same. The difference being that birds are mostly soft pieces of meat which compress to absorb energy and bounce off, while drones are made of hard components which concentrate their energy into a smaller surface area and can thus penetrate further.
Odds are it's a bird strike, not a drone strike. There are something like a hundred billion birds aloft at any give time, while there are probably only a few tens of thousand of drones aloft at any given time. And there have been bird strikes before which left little to no organic matter. Not saying a drone strike can't happen, just that a plane is much more likely to hit a bird.
What's the difference between someone catapulting a rock into a 737 vs. a drone?
"drones" are much lower density (mostly plastic), aren't traveling at a high velocity and are expensive.
I feel like you have overlooked some important differences between the two.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
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Special delivery went off course
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Planes must be armored against a 5 kilogram drone impact at landing and takeoff speeds.
They are. They are hardened against birds, which they hit quite a bit more frequently than drones. Some can be quite a bit larger than 5 kg.
At the very least, they should be required to have ADS-B so they are visible to aircraft.
As a pilot, I can tell you that something having an ADS-B OUT doesn't make it visible. It only creates an alert that requires the pilot's attention to search the sky to see. UAS are much smaller than manned aircraft, and manned aircraft can be damned hard to see sometimes.
Distract the pilots from flying the airplane enough and that, by itself, will create problems.