Jet Engines

[wildwood]

There appears to be a daily bird strike somewhere in the world every day, sometimes with catastrophic results. Normal logic would suggest fitting a jet engines' air intake with a cone-shaped springwired cover of some type. There must be some reason why this is not done. The vast majority of strikes happen at lower air-speeds when taking off or landing, so a bird becoming like a bullet as they would at 600mph should not be a factor. Any thoughts on this?
Also, some small half cups on the side of the wheels would make them spin at a great rate before hitting the tarmac, minimising blowouts.

[rekstout]

Fitting any sort of cowling over the intakes would greatly reduce the intake of air and dramatically reduce the efficiency of the engine. If a bird were to strike - the (metal?) fragments from such a cowling would do massive damage to the compressor blades if it were to break as compared to the damage organic material alone would inflict.

As for the sapinning cups theory - I understand where you are coming from but you would need something a bit more substantial as jet wheels can weigh well in excess of a ton apiece

[Mortartube]

I've also wondered about the cups to spin aircraft wheels. My Father, who worked on aircraft in WWII, said he remembered seeing this idea tried out in the early 50's, so perhaps it wasn't feasible for some reason. Keith

[wildwood]

Rekstout - I'm obviously not very good at explaining things. Sorry.
With a cone-shaped springwired cover I mean something like a large kitchen sieve with a pointy end like a cone, made of, say, 4mm high tensile steel wire. The cone shape would ensure a greater air flow than a flat wire cover, and may help to bounce the bird off.

[sddsddean]

I think I'm right in saying that all jet engine designs must be proved to withstand birdstrikes. This is why all engine manufacturers have a budget for chickens(dead of course!) which are fired into a running engine. The engine must not break up due to the bird strike. In fact very few bird strikes end in catastrophe and the engine shutdowns are normally precautionary.

[rekstout]

I fully understand what you mean wildwood but anything covering the engine intake, even partially, like a wire a mesh, would reduce the amount of air getting into the combustion chamber. Rather like pouring water through a seive, you are going to get some resistance and reduce the throughflow. Irrespective of that, you would have to develop a mesh about eight foot across, anchored only at the edges which would not flex considerably even when struck by a ten pound goose at five hundred miles an hour. Something of an engineering nightmare.

A cone shape would be a bad idea as it would route the air around the engine housing instead of through it, no airflow, no combustion