Boeing 737 Hail Damage

Page 3 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

Dacalo

Diamond Member
Mar 31, 2000
8,778
4
76
I have seen what hail can do to cars so that is not that surprising.

Must have been freaky.
 

dmcowen674

No Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
54,889
47
91
www.alienbabeltech.com
Originally posted by: Dacalo
I have seen what hail can do to cars so that is not that surprising.

Must have been freaky.

Now you can imagine what happened to Columbia having a huge chunk of foam at high velocity.

It the same principle like when water becomes as hard as hitting concrete from high altitude.


 

EyeMWing

Banned
Jun 13, 2003
15,670
1
0
Originally posted by: Eli
Wow, that's amazing. :Q

I've seen pics of planes after being hit by birds. They really get dented up.

The turbines spin at what... 45,000RPM(out of my ass guess)?

That should be enough to chop just about anything up.. lol

I doubt the engine is unharmed though. They probably have to give it a good gothrough after something gets ingested.. especially something like a bird..

LOL!

Mechanic: "John, your engine smells like grilled chicken.."

Pilot: "Yeah... I hit a flock of geese a while back..."

Nah, engines eat things all the time. Random crap on the tarmac (especially after a thunderstorm or somthing), small birds, large birds, sheets of ice peeling off the plane, etc.

Part of the FAA's requirements is that a new jet engine for commercial use must be able to eat a couple of chickens shot at a couple hundred miles an hour at the turbines and remain in full working order. I believe they also require it to be able to eat ice sheets and sustain the equivalent of a firetruck's deck gun based on somthing I saw awhile back on the prototyping of the B777
 

Eli

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
50,419
8
81
Originally posted by: zbalat
WHAT THE HAIL!!!

Bird strike incidents

Damn. I think the people that said those engines can take a beating are wrong.... lol

From that, it sounds like they almost always fail after ingesting something like a bird, but it doesen't seem to ever cause the plane to crash.

I mean hell, with this case, Feb. 22nd, 1999.. the number two engine was destroyed by mere starlings. :Q

Date: 21 January 2001
Aircraft: MD-11
Airport: Portland Intl. (OR)
Phase of Flight: Take off
Effect on Flight: Aborted take-off, engine shut down
Damage: Engine
Wildlife Species: Herring gull
Comments from Report: The #3 engine ingested a Herring gull. The engine stall blew of the nose cowl that was sucked back into the engine and shredded. The engine had an uncontained failure. The pilot aborted take-off and blew two tires. 217 passengers were safely deplaned and rerouted to other flights.
:Q

Damn.. I wonder if they reported that on the news.. lol..
 

Goosemaster

Lifer
Apr 10, 2001
48,775
3
81
Originally posted by: EyeMWing
Originally posted by: Eli
Wow, that's amazing. :Q

I've seen pics of planes after being hit by birds. They really get dented up.

The turbines spin at what... 45,000RPM(out of my ass guess)?

That should be enough to chop just about anything up.. lol

I doubt the engine is unharmed though. They probably have to give it a good gothrough after something gets ingested.. especially something like a bird..

LOL!

Mechanic: "John, your engine smells like grilled chicken.."

Pilot: "Yeah... I hit a flock of geese a while back..."

Nah, engines eat things all the time. Random crap on the tarmac (especially after a thunderstorm or somthing), small birds, large birds, sheets of ice peeling off the plane, etc.

Part of the FAA's requirements is that a new jet engine for commercial use must be able to eat a couple of chickens shot at a couple hundred miles an hour at the turbines and remain in full working order. I believe they also require it to be able to eat ice sheets and sustain the equivalent of a firetruck's deck gun based on somthing I saw awhile back on the prototyping of the B777

Interesting...engineers did a fantastic job of integrating cermaics into turbine composition without weakening it too much.
 

Eli

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
50,419
8
81
Originally posted by: EyeMWing
Originally posted by: Eli
Wow, that's amazing. :Q

I've seen pics of planes after being hit by birds. They really get dented up.

The turbines spin at what... 45,000RPM(out of my ass guess)?

That should be enough to chop just about anything up.. lol

I doubt the engine is unharmed though. They probably have to give it a good gothrough after something gets ingested.. especially something like a bird..

LOL!

Mechanic: "John, your engine smells like grilled chicken.."

Pilot: "Yeah... I hit a flock of geese a while back..."

Nah, engines eat things all the time. Random crap on the tarmac (especially after a thunderstorm or somthing), small birds, large birds, sheets of ice peeling off the plane, etc.

Part of the FAA's requirements is that a new jet engine for commercial use must be able to eat a couple of chickens shot at a couple hundred miles an hour at the turbines and remain in full working order. I believe they also require it to be able to eat ice sheets and sustain the equivalent of a firetruck's deck gun based on somthing I saw awhile back on the prototyping of the B777
Hmm..

Well, like I said.. it doesen't ever seem to result in a crash landing, usually just a precautionary landing... but the engine almost always has to be replaced ot rebuilt.
 

Ciber

Platinum Member
Nov 20, 2000
2,531
30
91
The engines are tested by firing 8-pound birds at the engines and they are ingested without problem, but anything larger than that can cause serious problems, the only real requirement besides being able to ingest a 8-pound bird is that the engine will contain the fan blades within the engine mount and not release blades or scrap metal(not turn into a frag grenade). Because of that, almost all aircraft engines that suffer a failure after ingestion will have to be replaced, since the fan blades are contained in the mount, and pretty much just rip the internals of the engine to pieces.
 

dude8604

Platinum Member
Oct 3, 2001
2,680
0
0
22 September 1995; U.S. Air Force E-3 AWACS; Elmendorf AFB, Alaska: During takeoff as the aircraft was passing rotation speed, the aircraft struck about three dozen geese, ingesting at least three into engine two and at least one into engine one. The aircraft was unable to maintain controlled flight and crashed in a forest about 1 mile (1.6 km) beyond the runway. All 24 occupants were killed.

:Q
 

UNCjigga

Lifer
Dec 12, 2000
25,629
10,333
136
Date: 08 March 2001
Aircraft: Bell 206
Airport: Barnes-Jewish Hospital Helipad (MO)
Phase of Flight: Approach (500? AGL)
Effect on Flight: None
Damage: Windshield
Wildlife Species: Duck
Comments from Report: Aircraft was transporting a heart patient to Barnes-Jewish Hospital, when a duck crashed through the windshield. The pilot was slightly injured and was partially incapacitated. The duck ended up in the patient?s lap.
:Q :Q
 

Cyberian

Diamond Member
Jun 17, 2000
9,999
1
0
Originally posted by: uncJIGGA
Date: 08 March 2001
Aircraft: Bell 206
Airport: Barnes-Jewish Hospital Helipad (MO)
Phase of Flight: Approach (500? AGL)
Effect on Flight: None
Damage: Windshield
Wildlife Species: Duck
Comments from Report: Aircraft was transporting a heart patient to Barnes-Jewish Hospital, when a duck crashed through the windshield. The pilot was slightly injured and was partially incapacitated. The duck ended up in the patient?s lap.
:Q :Q
Well, I guess that helped his heart condition quite a bit!

 

rudder

Lifer
Nov 9, 2000
19,441
86
91
Originally posted by: PipBoy
Originally posted by: ness1469
if there are holes in the cockpit glass, doesn't that mean that the cockpit would have depressurized and ripped the rest of the glass to pieces?

Or have a just seen too many movies?

below 6000' or so the cabin isn't pressurized yet so it probably wasn't an issue. broken cockpit windows will create massive drag though. in a small plane like a cessna a broken front window can make the aircraft nearly unflyable.

The cabin is pressurized but early on there isn't much of a pressure difference. That cockpit glass is also several inches thick and its heated to make it very pliable.
 

Doggiedog

Lifer
Aug 17, 2000
12,780
5
81
<06 December 2000
Aircraft: Emb 120
Airport: Yeager Airport (WV)
Phase of Flight: Landing roll
Effect on Flight: None
Damage: Prop and fuselage
Wildlife Species: White-tailed deer
Comments from Report: Aircraft collided with 2 deer just after landing. The tip of a propeller blade (4" x 3") had separated and punctured the fuselage, injuring a passenger, who later died.>

Nice.
 

Eli

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
50,419
8
81
Originally posted by: Doggiedog
<06 December 2000
Aircraft: Emb 120
Airport: Yeager Airport (WV)
Phase of Flight: Landing roll
Effect on Flight: None
Damage: Prop and fuselage
Wildlife Species: White-tailed deer
Comments from Report: Aircraft collided with 2 deer just after landing. The tip of a propeller blade (4" x 3") had separated and punctured the fuselage, injuring a passenger, who later died.>

Nice.
lol, I saw that one too.. Karma? :Q

Kinda like that guy that was in his shop cleaning one of his guns.. and it went off.

His daughter and a friend were sleeping in a tent in their front yard. He went out to check on them, he thought maybe the shot frightened them. When he went into the tent, he found his daughter dead and her friend sleeping. She had been shot in the head.

Turns out the bullet from his gun ricochet off the concrete foundation of his house, and straight into their tent. This was a local story here a couple of years back... Man, I feel sorry for that guy.
 

SunnyD

Belgian Waffler
Jan 2, 2001
32,675
146
106
www.neftastic.com
Hail? I think not... FLAK CANNON maybe....... enough to make me want to walk everywhere. Oh wait, then these things start falling on my head (the planes, not the hail).
 

Sundog

Lifer
Nov 20, 2000
12,342
1
0
Originally posted by: Eli
Originally posted by: Doggiedog
<06 December 2000
Aircraft: Emb 120
Airport: Yeager Airport (WV)
Phase of Flight: Landing roll
Effect on Flight: None
Damage: Prop and fuselage
Wildlife Species: White-tailed deer
Comments from Report: Aircraft collided with 2 deer just after landing. The tip of a propeller blade (4" x 3") had separated and punctured the fuselage, injuring a passenger, who later died.>

Nice.
lol, I saw that one too.. Karma? :Q

Kinda like that guy that was in his shop cleaning one of his guns.. and it went off.

His daughter and a friend were sleeping in a tent in their front yard. He went out to check on them, he thought maybe the shot frightened them. When he went into the tent, he found his daughter dead and her friend sleeping. She had been shot in the head.

Turns out the bullet from his gun ricochet off the concrete foundation of his house, and straight into their tent. This was a local story here a couple of years back... Man, I feel sorry for that guy.

Yeah, I feel bad that his daughter died also. BUT WTF is he doing cleaning a loaded flipp'in gun. What a complete moron......that is the first think we learned at age 6 in Montana when grandpa showed us how to clean the 22s,223s, 30-30s, 30-0-6s etc. Why does anyone ever keep their guns loaded while cleaning....how many frick'en times over the past 20 years have I heard "and the gun accidentaly went off while it was being cleaned...". :disgust: