Wildlife Damage Management, Internet Center for

 

Title

BIRD STRIKES AND THE AIR FORCE

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

November 1976

The first recorded bird strike accident was in 1912, when a gull got caught in an air- craft control cable. The pilot was killed in the crash. Since that first squaring-off, man and bird have been engaged in an accelerating contest in which there can be no winner. At first, birdstrikes were not really much of a problem. Aircraft were slow, and birds were able to learn to move out of their paths in time to avoid a collision. But, with the coming of the jet age, the problem began to take on more sinister proportions. At this point, birds ceased to be a minor annoyance and became instead a serious hazard to the safe operation of aircraft.