High-speed aircraft and jet engines just cannot cope with birds. In the U.S., the annual total of aircraft-bird collisions now exceeds 1,600, some of them resulting in injuries and even fatal crashes. The Air Force alone estimates that it spends about $5,000,000 per year to repair aircraft surfaces battered or even pierced by the high-velocity impact of large fowl; it costs another $4,000,000 to $5,000,000 to repair or replace jet engines that have been damaged by ingested birds. But scientific help is on the way for aircraft—as well as for the birds, which fare even worse...
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