This seems to be the week for bird strike related ideas, so I might as well toss my hat into the ring.

Some airports employ a falcon or hawk to fly around and scare geese away before planes take off. However, this only clears the area right around the runways and doesn't prevent bird strikes once the plane is a few miles away but still at low altitude.

Therefore I petition the Federal Aviation Administration to require six Red-Tailed Hawk shaped kites to be installed on every aircraft, placed at various locations on the fuselage. These should be deployed whenever the plane is less than 10,000 feet above ground.

The bulk of the trip will be kite-free; the increased drag will only affect a few minutes around takeoff and landing.

Thank you.
-- phundug, Jan 18 2009

I had the image of a person, with a basket full of kites balanced on his head, trying to sell them to the passengers and crew of a transatlantic flight.
-- neelandan, Jan 19 2009


[Ian], I'll be happy to change the title to Kite Kites. But would geese recognize or respond to Kites?
-- phundug, Jan 19 2009


As frightful an image as a jet airliner traveling 200+ knots trailing 6 model hawks (I wouldn’t call a model hawk that can survive 200+ knot wind a kite) is, I don’t think this would even slightly reduce the chance of birdstrikes. Birds don’t intentionally fail to get out of the way of jet airliners because they’re not afraid of them, but because they approach too quickly for them to perceive and evade. Trailing a squadron of hawks behind the airliner won’t at all change this.
-- CraigD, May 12 2015


Why not just paint the appropriate images on the plane in various places?
-- Vernon, May 12 2015


Targeted holographic projection? Drones that can travel ahead of the plane, slow down to scare off birds, and then catch back up?
-- Voice, May 12 2015


//Birds don’t intentionally fail to get out of the way of jet airliners// That is a very benign view of bird mentality.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 12 2015



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