Word of the day: Snarge
snarge n. the bloody goo that results from a bird-plane collision.
This article is all about the bird strikes in airplanes, and in addition to their word of the day, contains some rather interesting quotes:
There's also this interesting tidbit, which I think proves my oft-quoted "Law of Truly Large Numbers". A pilot detects a collision with something at 1,800 feet. After the plane lands, the 'snarge' undergoes DNA analysis to determine what kind of bird it was. The result? It was a cat. That's right, there was no mistake. The animal that hit the plane 1,800 feet off the ground was, in fact, a cat. Think about that for a second. Was it an act of God or some supernatural phenomenon? If that's what you thought, then you weren't using your imagination. Apparently birds of prey sometimes catch small cats and occasionally they accidentally drop them at high altitude, and one time the cat hit an airplane. This reduces the odds against to only highly improbable. There's always stuff that sounds impossible, until you hear the explanation.
This article is all about the bird strikes in airplanes, and in addition to their word of the day, contains some rather interesting quotes:
"Scientists can then tell what kinds of birds are commonly smashing into America's airplanes, something of intense interest to both the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. military."Einstein would disagree about who's the projectile doing the smashing, claiming as he always does that all motion is relative. That Einstein, does he always have to be so diplomatic? But I just get this vision of a 200-ton plane just minding its own business, when a reckless, evil 4 pound bird comes along and smashes into it at high speed. And also, of the sun revolving around the earth.
"The military deals with feathered projectiles on a daily basis"
There's also this interesting tidbit, which I think proves my oft-quoted "Law of Truly Large Numbers". A pilot detects a collision with something at 1,800 feet. After the plane lands, the 'snarge' undergoes DNA analysis to determine what kind of bird it was. The result? It was a cat. That's right, there was no mistake. The animal that hit the plane 1,800 feet off the ground was, in fact, a cat. Think about that for a second. Was it an act of God or some supernatural phenomenon? If that's what you thought, then you weren't using your imagination. Apparently birds of prey sometimes catch small cats and occasionally they accidentally drop them at high altitude, and one time the cat hit an airplane. This reduces the odds against to only highly improbable. There's always stuff that sounds impossible, until you hear the explanation.
posted by Jeff at 9/23/2005 01:09:00 PM
3 Comments:
Cat probably would have landed on its feet if it wasn't for that plane.
I must admit to not being able to read this entire post given my extreme fear of birds entering jet engines. I will return and read it some day when I'm tipsy or have taken some Valium.
Happy Sunday! ;)
I find it amusing that they test those engines with a "rooster booster" (a cannon that fires once-frozen chickens into the engines at high speed). What a great job that guy has.
And even more amazing is that they've engineered the engines (which I suppose is the most literal use of the word) so that they withstand the flying poultry.
I've seen footage of an aircraft carrier deck where a crewman got too close to the intake, got sucked right off his feet and blown through the engine. He survived (if I recall, his injuries were a lot less serious than you'd expect).
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