Jobs I don't want

woodstock

woodstock

Final Approach
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/17/nyregion/17strikecnd.html?_r=1&hp

In the physical tests, the engines are revved to full power inside a test facility and absorb various kinds of birds, from those the size of sparrows to those the size of herons, one at a time. (The birds are already dead.) The engines also ingest multiple birds meant to simulate a collision with a flock, said Matthew Perra, a spokesman for the engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney.
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Cafeteria Menu - Lunch specials

Monday - Roasted Squab
Tuesday - Roasted Duck
Wednesday - Roasted Chicken
Thursday - Roasted Goose
Friday - Mixed Skewers of Bird
 
I saw an episode of this on History or Discovery a few years ago. They were using an air canon to shoot the dead birds into a spinning turbofan. Pretty interesting to watch at super-slow-mo speeds. IIRC, they even wet as far as setting a 'charge' on a few of the fan blades which they would detonate while the engine was running to see what would happen if the engine ingested the fan blade during a debris strike. The engine survived, but not for long. This might have been a special about the 777, actually.

Of course, this leads us back to the old joke of France borrowing NASA's 'bird shooting canon' to test windscreens on its jets. They couldn't figure out why NONE of their windscreens were able to withstand the blow of a dead bird at reasonable speeds. They finally asked some of the NASA engineers to see if they were running the machine wrong. After investigating the problem, the engineers' solution was "You must THAW the bird before shooting it at the windscreen."
 
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Am I the only one who thinks that sounds like an awesome job to test what happens to airplane engines when you do all kinds of weird things to them? ;)

Chris, I saw that special, it was on the 777. The engines seemed to handle the birds just fine, but I they weren't shooting the entire flock at the engines, and I'd suspect that to be the difference. A lot of devices will handle abuse at a particular level, but not above it.

I can vouch for there being plenty of Canadian Geese around this area about now. On Monday, I landed at an airport near PHL (not LOM). Three deer ran across the runway towards the far end (that was close...) and then there was a flock of at least 100-150 Canadian Geese on the taxiway. Funny how revving two engines up scared them away. :D
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Am I the only one who thinks that sounds like an awesome job to test what happens to airplane engines when you do all kinds of weird things to them? ;)

Chris, I saw that special, it was on the 777. The engines seemed to handle the birds just fine, but I they weren't shooting the entire flock at the engines, and I'd suspect that to be the difference. A lot of devices will handle abuse at a particular level, but not above it.

I can vouch for there being plenty of Canadian Geese around this area about now. On Monday, I landed at an airport near PHL (not LOM). Three deer ran across the runway towards the far end (that was close...) and then there was a flock of at least 100-150 Canadian Geese on the taxiway. Funny how revving two engines up scared them away. :D
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At least they ran away for you. I had a coyote sit on the centerline and stare at me on takeoff roll out of KMSL at Thanksgiving. I thought "He'll move once I get power in." 50' down the runway, he wasn't moving, so I went idle and began slowing. I got within 100ft of him before he slowly walked to the edge of the runway. I added power back in and off we went. That's not cool when they aren't scared of the planes anymore. :frown2:
 
Any job that involves destroying very expensive stuff sounds good to me!!:D

And, uh, yeah, it, um... it enhances safety; yeah, that's the important part.

:D
 
Friend of mine from college went to work for a testing lab. He said there was nothing more satisfying than destroying things at work all day. No stress at night... ;)
 
wsuffa said:
Friend of mine from college went to work for a testing lab. He said there was nothing more satisfying than destroying things at work all day. No stress at night... ;)
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He'd love our shock and vibe lab at work, then. They do a fine job of breaking things now and then.
 
Shooting birds at a jet engine - A fine job that I'd be happy to have.

Cleaning up the mess afterwards - Not so much. :no: :vomit:
 
CJones said:
At least they ran away for you. I had a coyote sit on the centerline and stare at me on takeoff roll out of KMSL at Thanksgiving. I thought "He'll move once I get power in." 50' down the runway, he wasn't moving, so I went idle and began slowing. I got within 100ft of him before he slowly walked to the edge of the runway. I added power back in and off we went. That's not cool when they aren't scared of the planes anymore. :frown2:
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We've landed in Amana (C11), Iowa, on their lovely grass strip (within walking distance of the brewery and half a dozen awesome restaurants, BTW) during deer season. More than once we've had to make a low approach to scare multiple deer off the runway.

Hitting one of those critters would ruin your whole day.
 
smigaldi said:
A guy I worked with back in the 1980s when I was at the Air Force Weapons Lab, was one of the guy who used to shoot chickens at airplanes to analysis bird strike data.
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You worked in a weapons lab? Hmmm...

I worked in a nuke weapons cage at Whidbey Island about that same time where we taught officers how to hang 'em. :)
 
I remember reading somehwere someone forgot to unfreeze the birds they used to test jet engines. Needless to say the frozen birds caused much more damage.
 
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