What Would Actually Happen If an Airplane Hit a Drone?

Teknologi.id . October 22, 2018

A drone and an airplane illustration. Credit: Public Domain.

Any responsible drone enthusiast knows that flying a drone near an airplane is something you should never, ever do. Even if you live in one of the few countries where flying near an airport is still legal, doing so puts the lives of pilots and passengers in danger. Having said that, it’s human nature to be curious. We’ve all wondered at some point what would happen if such a collision did occur. And now we know, thanks to a simulation created by researchers from the University of Dayton. The video below explains everything you need to know about the project, as well as showing the crash footage we know you all want to see:

Luckily, such a collision has not happened, yet. But according to Kevin Poormon, group leader at the University of Dayton Research Institute's impact physics lab, it's only a matter of time before an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) causes significant damage to a manned aircraft. When that day comes, Poormon wants aviators to know exactly how much damage they can expect their aircraft to sustain. That is why Poormon and his colleagues simulated a collision by launching a small quadcopter out of a cannon at 238 mph (383 km/h) directly into a small airplane's wing earlier this year. The results… were striking. "While the quadcopter broke apart, its energy and mass hung together to create significant damage to the wing," Poormon said in a statement. As you can see in the high-speed video Poormon and his team recorded, the tiny, 2-lb. (0.9 kilogram) drone disappears into the wing like a bullet into butter. The shattered drone ripped open the wing's leading edge, burrowed inward and damaged the wing's spar. Wing’s spar is a key structural element that keeps the wing stable. In comparison, when the team shot a fake bird made of pink gel out of their cannon, it ruptured a wider hole in the wing's leading edge, but left the spar untouched. "All the weight of the aircraft is suspended on the spars,"Poormon told Wired. "If you damage the spar enough on that side, you would not survive. The aircraft would crash." The wing in Poormon's impact experiment came from a Mooney M20 aircraft, a small, general use airplane that seats about four people (including the pilot). While these relatively small craft aren't built with the same safety specifications of a large passenger jet, the thickness and structure of Mooney wings are pretty similar to those on a larger commercial plane, Poormon said. And as drones become more and more mainstream, the chances of a disastrous collision occurring grows ever greater. According to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report, pilots reported coming in close proximity to nearly 800 unmanned aerial vehicles between April and June 2018 alone. Those sightings have resulted in a few close calls, and at least one significant collision; In New York last year, a civilian quadcopter flying at about 300 feet (91 m) smashed into an Army Black Hawk helicopter, obliterating the drone and denting the helicopter's rotor. While the FAA has rules about where and when you can fly a drone legally, most accidents — including the Black Hawk collision — probably occur because drone pilots are unaware that they're breaking these rules. Increased UAV regulation could help prevent future accidents, Poormon said, as could an effort to manufacture drones in such a way that makes them more likely to shatter on impact. You Might Also Like: HIRO the Ambulances Drones, Modern Way of Emergency Response.

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What Would Actually Happen If an Airplane Hit a Drone?

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