On a warm and golden afternoon, October 4, 1960, a Lockheed Electra jet turboprop carrying 72 souls took off from Logan Airport. Seconds later, the plane slammed into a flock of 10,000 starlings, and abruptly plummeted into Winthrop Harbor. The collision took 62 lives and gave rise to the largest rescue mobilization in Boston's history, which included civilians in addition to police, firefighters, skindivers, and Navy and Coast Guard air-sea rescue teams. Largely because of the quick action and good seamanship of Winthrop citizens, many of them boys in small boats, ten passengers survived what the Civil Aeronautics Board termed "a non-survivable crash." Using firsthand interviews with survivors of the crash, rescuers, divers, aeronautics experts, and ornithologists, as well as a wide range of primary source material, Kalafatas foregrounds the story of the crash and its aftermath to anchor a broader inquiry into developments in the aeronautics industry, the increase in the number of big birds in the skies of North America, and the increasing danger of "bird strikes." Along the way he looks into interesting historical sidelights such as the creation of Logan Airport, the transformation of Boston's industrial base to new technologies, and the nature of journalistic investigations in the early 1960s. The book is a rare instance when an author can simultaneously write about a fascinating historical event and a clear and present danger today. Kalafatas calls for and itemizes solutions that protect both birds and the traveling public.

Groundbreaking Handbook Offers Detailed Research and Valuable Methodology to Address Dangerous and Costly Aviation Hazard Though annual damages from bird and bat collisions with aircraft have been estimated at $400 million in the United States and up to $1.2 billion in commercial aviation worldwide and despite numerous conferences and councils dedicated to the issue, very little has been published on this expensive and sometimes-lethal flying risk. Bird Strike in Aviation seeks to fill this gap, providing a comprehensive guide to preventing and minimizing damage caused by bird strike on aircraft. Based on a thorough and comprehensive examination of the subject, Dr. El-Sayed offers different approaches to reducing bird strikes, including detailed coverage of the three categories necessary for such reduction, namely, awareness/education, bird management (active and passive control), and aircraft design. In addition, the text discusses the importance of cooperation between airplanes, airports and air traffic authorities as well as testing methods necessary for certification of both aircraft frame and engine. Other notable features include: Statistics and analyses for bird strikes with both civil and military helicopters as well as military fixed wing aircrafts, including annual costs, critical flight altitudes, critical parts of aircraft, distance from air base and specifics of date and timing Thorough review and analysis all fatal bird strike accidents and most non-fatal accidents since 1905, the first book to provide such a reference The use of numerical methods in analyzing historic data (ex. probability functions, finite element methods for analyzing impact on aircraft structure, experimental measurement technique for displacement, vibration, component distortion, etc.) Instruction on identification of bird species (using visual, microscopic, and DNA evidence) and details of bird migration to aid air traffic control in avoiding scenarios likely to result in collision With its wealth of statistical data, innovative research, and practical suggestions, Bird Strike in Aviation will prove a vital resource for researchers, engineers and graduate students in aerospace engineering/manufacturing or ornithology, as well as for military and civilian pilots and flight crew or professionals in aviation authorities and air traffic control.

Bird strikes are one of the most dangerous threats to civil and military flight safety: between 1960 and 2014, they were responsible for the destruction of approximately 150 civil aircraft and the deaths of 271 people. Bird Strike presents a summary of the damage imposed on the aviation industries by their avian counterparts. This book first presents and analyzes the statistics obtained from bird strike databases and offers various methods for minimizing the overall probability of bird-strike events. The next chapters explore how to analyze the ability of aero-engine critical structures to withstand bird-strike events by implementing reliable experimental, theoretical, and numerical methods. Finally, the book investigates the impact of bird strikes on different components of aircrafts, such as the metal fuselage, composite fuselage, engines, wings, and tail, and proposes two new bird models, with explanations of their use. - Provides up-to-date information for aviation staff and researchers working on aircraft safety - Offers comprehensive investigations on all the statistical, theoretical, experimental, and numerical aspects of bird strike - Includes studies carried out on bird strike and provides the reader with the important findings of each paper

Groundbreaking Handbook Offers Detailed Research and Valuable Methodology to Address Dangerous and Costly Aviation Hazard Though annual damages from bird and bat collisions with aircraft have been estimated at $400 million in the United States and up to $1.2 billion in commercial aviation worldwide and despite numerous conferences and councils dedicated to the issue, very little has been published on this expensive and sometimes-lethal flying risk. Bird Strike in Aviation seeks to fill this gap, providing a comprehensive guide to preventing and minimizing damage caused by bird strike on aircraft. Based on a thorough and comprehensive examination of the subject, Dr. El-Sayed offers different approaches to reducing bird strikes, including detailed coverage of the three categories necessary for such reduction, namely, awareness/education, bird management (active and passive control), and aircraft design. In addition, the text discusses the importance of cooperation between airplanes, airports and air traffic authorities as well as testing methods necessary for certification of both aircraft frame and engine. Other notable features include: Statistics and analyses for bird strikes with both civil and military helicopters as well as military fixed wing aircrafts, including annual costs, critical flight altitudes, critical parts of aircraft, distance from air base and specifics of date and timing Thorough review and analysis all fatal bird strike accidents and most non-fatal accidents since 1905, the first book to provide such a reference The use of numerical methods in analyzing historic data (ex. probability functions, finite element methods for analyzing impact on aircraft structure, experimental measurement technique for displacement, vibration, component distortion, etc.) Instruction on identification of bird species (using visual, microscopic, and DNA evidence) and details of bird migration to aid air traffic control in avoiding scenarios likely to result in collision With its wealth of statistical data, innovative research, and practical suggestions, Bird Strike in Aviation will prove a vital resource for researchers, engineers and graduate students in aerospace engineering/manufacturing or ornithology, as well as for military and civilian pilots and flight crew or professionals in aviation authorities and air traffic control.