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Comment by the8472 | Hacker News Reader

The drone did not halt the flights. Administrators halted the flight out of fears over a drone.

What I wonder is whether those fears are proportionate. Are drones any worse than a flock of birds?

Edit: video from a sibling comment suggests the answer is "yes" for the case of a collision with a wings's leading edge.

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> Are drones any worse than a flock of birds?

Yes. A flock of birds has incentive and the means to get out of the way. Drones don't react to their surroundings.

Drones are also hard and do more damage than a bird strike.

I'm skeptical that birds have a means to dodge something moving at hundreds of miles per hour. If anything, a human controlling a drone from a distance has more perspective / ability to dodge a plane than a bird does.

Now whether we should actually trust said human to do so... that's a different question, as is the potential damage vs birdstrike.

I've nearly hit birds flying (and actually hit one but at night). They're actually not bad at avoiding aircraft going 100+ mph. They'll tuck their wings and dive if they feel they're in danger so typical training is to pull to avoid a strike (and lower the chance it impacts the windscreen). Obviously not all birds are great at this, particularly the larger ones but they do seek to avoid aircraft generally.

That video (linked by everdev) makes it look like the bird was more damaging to the plane than the same-sized drone was (it tore a bigger hole). But the tester says the drone strike was more of a problem because it penetrated the wing and damaged internal structures (hydraulics? electronics? fuel lines? Structural components holding the whole wing together?), and that for safety, drones should be made more like birds.

My understanding is that planes mostly continue to fly even if you change the shape of the wing (see all the examples of planes flying upside down or with one wing). Probably the answer is "it depends", especially if we are talking about a flock of birds compared to a single drone.

Don't forget the lithium batteries, which could cause serious damage if they entered the wing fuel tanks and decomposed.

Why does this keep being asked? YES! drones are a lot more damaging than birds: http://aviationweek.com/bca/faa-study-drones-more-dangerous-...

actual report: http://www.assureuas.org/projects/deliverables/sUASAirborneC...

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