Interesting Experiment. Drone Vs an aircraft wing.

jmbsmt63 · Oct 9, 2018

Not a Spark but still a cool experiment!
This is staged to position the impact for maximum effect but still interesting!

This Is the Result When a Quadcopter Strikes the Wing of an Aircraft | Digital Trends

pstik · Oct 9, 2018

That was very interesting. I thought the drone would break apart before causing so much damage to the wing.

john doe · Oct 9, 2018

Anecdotal, but one of my buddy's flys banner planes by the beach and has hit several quads. He said they bounce right off. The quads usually break of course...

I could be wrong, but I feel as if the experiment doesn't accurately reflect a collision. They launched the quad at 238mph at a stationary immovable object from what it looks like.

lmel2005 · Oct 10, 2018

Nice experiment, and we can see the damage caused by a possible collision.

In real world, drones are flying under 120m, where collisions are very unlikely to happen, and IF they happen, the speed of aircrafts flying that low, is much less than 400 kph.

jmbsmt63 · Oct 10, 2018

I agree that this is "staged" to have the maximum effect but I found it interesting that they were able to do that much damage even if staged. I love the reply above the drones bouncing off a banner plane...Good "real world" experience there!

Mark M · Oct 10, 2018

The biggest variable missing here is the air vortices taking place around the wing.

With a stationary test this is missing. With a moving aircraft, the air before the leading edge of the wing is disrupted. A tiny little drone would never make a dead on impact. Instead it would get washed up and over or down and below.

This test is only propaganda for the FAA and others trying to squash hobbyist droners.

suprPHREAK · Oct 10, 2018

john doe said:
Anecdotal, but one of my buddy's flys banner planes by the beach and has hit several quads. He said they bounce right off. The quads usually break of course...

I could be wrong, but I feel as if the experiment doesn't accurately reflect a collision. They launched the quad at 238mph at a stationary immovable object from what it looks like.

They explain the speed. It's a worst case scenario, 200mph plane vs a 38mph Phantom, head on.

suprPHREAK · Oct 10, 2018

Mark M said:
The biggest variable missing here is the air vortices taking place around the wing.

With a stationary test this is missing. With a moving aircraft, the air before the leading edge of the wing is disrupted. A tiny little drone would never make a dead on impact. Instead it would get washed up and over or down and below.

This test is only propaganda for the FAA and others trying to squash hobbyist droners.

Those vortices would have negligible effect at the fast closing speeds.

This is not FAA propaganda. Lab testing is needed to find out the effects of these collisions so that aircraft design can be directed to adapt to the change.

The scientist even says this: if drones were more fungible (flexible, collapsible, etc) then it would greatly lower the risk. I don't see how this would be a limit on drones.