well in theory the engine cowling ( or case ) is designed to contain any debris, but un-contained engine failures have and do occur, one of the more memorable ones in recent memory was that Qantas A380 where one of the turbines failed and was ejected through the wing, it could have been worse, a nanosecond either way and the debris could of passed right through the outboard engine, or worse, straight through the cabin
DJI announced that Geo fencing is being updated, it’s supposed to further increase protection against controlled and restricted airspace incursions: https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/13/d...em-across-europe-after-gatwick-drone-debacle/ The problem is though that there are quite a few cheap and cheerful flight controllers, such as the APM and Pixhawk controllers, that don’t have airport and restricted airspace Geo fencing functionality out of the box. This is because GPS positioning doesn’t come as standard with these flight controllers. You can buy an optional GPS receiver. If the drone doesn’t have GPS you can still fly the drone but can’t use any of the GPS related flight assists and modes. It also means you can’t ring fence where it can’t fly. These FC’s can be used to build a drone and cause mayhem or be used for illicit purposes, such as smuggling contraband into prisons. Geo fencing needs to be come standard across all off the shelf drones and also all drone flight controllers that have GPS functionality.
Yes, they absolutely are; however, that's not always the case. It's not a guarantee that they contain the debris. I've been on a Tri-Star that threw a fan blade on the way home from theatre in 2008. Luckily we had two engines left and diverted to another middle-east airbase following in-flight emergency procedures. The cowling was not a pretty sight when we left the a/c and we had parts of the engine cover missing for good measure. It was not a nice sound to hear, nor a nice feeling when you lose a third of your thrust when climbing!
For a moment you had me wondering "What kind of flash b@st@rd gets a plane home from the theatre?!". Then I realised you said "on the way home from theatre", not "on the way home from a theatre"... As you were...
My arse would have been nipping while I was kissing it goodbye lol. That must have been a hairy experience!! A confirmed drone strike is going to happen, it's a question of when and what sort of damage it's going to do. For me, any risk to aviation traffic is a risk that should be taken seriously and we need to find ways in which hobbyist sUAV flying can continue without over-regulation, commercial sUAV flying can continue and still be a profitable industry but also ensuring other air users are safe from drone impact and drone incursions. All that needs to be backed up with a willingness to enforce current regulations, whereas enforcement isn't happening and the police and CAA are playing pass the parcel with infringements.
Dont see this report in the media.... https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1177&context=jate oh yeah, thats right, it doesnt cause mass hysteria or fit their agenda... just the opposite in fact.
I tried to view that on my phone. First it gave a MIME type of PDF, so I threw it at Acrobat; then Acrobat told me it was a ZIP archive so I got sketched out and closed it. Bizarre.
It basically talks about the possibility of adding strobe lights to drones to make it easier for pilots to spot them, however the experiment wasn't exactly a great success:
What the results do show is that a pilot cant see a drone unless incredibly close even with strobes on them... so those pilot reports of seeing one thousands of feet away at 600mph are BS.... Link works fine for me... even on my phone, it's just a pdf.
