According to data from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) between April and June of this year 2018 Commercial airline pilots have reported sightings of nearly 800 drones. And while not all of them violate airspace, this figure is a reminder that the possibility of a drone striking an aircraft exists.
In the case of the United States, over 40,000 drones are reported in the air every day, and while we know that A collision between a plane and a drone can be extremely dangerousnow thanks to the video we can confirm that it can also be disastrous.
A stark reminder of what can happen
Kevin Poormon, head of the impact physics group at the University of Dayton Research Institute, is currently responsible for important research such as analyzing the durability of different types of armor, as well as spacecraft impacts from debris moving at 6.5 km. /s, among others. This means that Poormon helps aeronautical companies Protect your plane from the impact of various objectsfrom birds to drones.
Given this, Poormon decided to do an experiment on the damage that would be caused by the impact of a commercial drone on an aircraft wing. For this, he had the support of the National UAS Training and Certification Center at Sinclair College, which provided him with a pair of DJI Phantom 2 drones and a right wing from a Mooney M20 small plane.
For the test, Poormon used the largest air cannon in his laboratory, which has a diameter of 30 centimeters and weighs 1.27 tons, and whose mechanism consists of shoot objects at high speed for a distance of 12 meters using compressed air.
So he mounted the drone on the cannon and fired it at 380 km/h, which would be the approximate combined speed of the drone and the landing aircraft. Three hundredths of a second later, the drone hit the wing.
As we can see in the video, captured by the camera at 10,000 frames per second, the damage to the wing is significant because it is not just an impact, but the drone breaks through the structure and sinks inside in terrifyingly stunning fashion.
According to Poormon’s conclusions, the impact of the drone would have pierced the wing, in addition to hitting and denting the beam, a vital structural element, so the plane would lose all control and be nearly impossible to survive. In comparison, the research team reports that the same impact with a bird of the same size would have resulted in damage to the wing, but no internal damage.
Although the experiment was performed on the wing of a small aircraft and that most commercial aircraft have more protection by having more sophisticated safety measures, this example tries to raise awareness of the use of drones and the importance of respecting airspace. According to Poormon, as drones proliferate and so does the risk of a crash, “we just have to be careful and be aware of what can happen if they’re used in an irresponsible way.”