Not entirely sure for the Osh bird strike, but the Mojave bird strike
was while on double-loud setting. I think the noise scared the critter
and sent it flying in the wrong direction. Skylon would, if nothing
else, turn hydrogen into noise with excellent efficiency.
A lot more than 10^-5....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf04F5xs9Cg
On 2018-02-20 9:37 AM, Ian Woollard wrote:
Was the Ez-Rocket on loud or quiet setting when it got hit though? I only ask because killing birds when they can't hear you coming isn't a fair comparison!
On 20 February 2018 at 06:18, Doug Jones <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
The Ez-Rocket had bird strikes on consecutive flights in July 2002,
one at Mojave and one at Oshkosh. I know this because I had to clean
up the messes.
Two dead birds, but no damage to the aircraft, in part because it
had no air inlets.
On 2018-02-18 10:30 AM, Keith Henson wrote:
I asked REL about bird strikes and got this back
Yes, we have considered FOD but do not think it???s a
problem. A first generation space plane like Skylon will
only be designed for 200 flights or so, however bird strike
occurs at roughly 10^-5 for civil airliners (from memory) so
the probability of a strike over the vehicle life is quite
small.
Nevertheless FOD and birds will pass axially along the
intake duct and strike the bypass burners rather than the
precooler which is tucked away inside. Since the bypass
system is not running for takeoff this will result in a
mission abort rather than loss of vehicle
Keith
--
-Ian Woollard
Sent from my Turing machine