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Why don’t commercial Jetliners have grills on their engines in order to prevent bird strikes?

Wouldn’t putting some sort of grill or screen prevent the birds from entering the jet engine thereby destroying it in the process?
Wow, you guys are really sensitive on this issue. Not all of us are pilots or aerospace engineers.

I can assure you that I did a search of this question before posting and came up with nothing and that I’m not a troll.

If it offends you all so much I will just delete the question.

This question has gotten asked a million times by our resident troll, but I don’t think you are one. You’ve been around longer and there are a few other tip offs, so:

A bird going through a turbine engine usually does not destroy the engine. You end up with fricasse’e bird.

First, the extra weight of the screen is cost prohibitive and not fuel efficient. The drag caused by the screen is also not fuel efficient.

Second, the screen would decrease the airflow to the engine further reducing engine efficiency.

Thirdly, pieces of the screen or grille could break off and ruin the turbine blades permanently and cause catastrophic damage in flight.

Fourth, it’s better to just let the bird go through the engine, chances are that you might get a little puff of smoke and have no damage to the turbine. Hopefully you do not cause a flame out like Sulley’s; You end up with chopped bird.

The better approach is to rid the airport areas of bird populations. There are a lot of different methods already used. Methods include: dogs, pulsing strobes, sound and light repellers, killing, nets, supersonic noisemakers, scare devices and habitat manipulation to make the airport environment unfriendly to bird populations.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 7th, 2010 at 6:24 pm and is filed under grills. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

10 Responses to “Why don’t commercial Jetliners have grills on their engines in order to prevent bird strikes?”

  1. Viola At Neon on March 7th, 2010 at 11:57 pm

    Frequently asked question (troll?)

    Because the solution, with the resulting effect on airflow, cost and weight, is worse than the problem it purports to solve.

    Besides, where would the kamikaze pilots put their flight data recorders?
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  2. because it will seriously throw off the efficiency of the engine. That and pressure over time will suck the grill in. Jet engines are some of the most powerful machines ever mad. They are so powerful that PEOPLE get sucked in and in some cases survived they are sucked in so fast.
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  3. A jet engine on a B777 can produce up to 115,000 lbs. of thrust. If you would place a grill on that B777 engine and apply full throttle even an animal the size of a cow would be sucked in without a problem.
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  4. What a remarkably unique solution. I’m going to run this one straight down to the patent office. Those poor buggers haven’t had a good belly chuckle since I came up with the aircraft constructed of black box materials.
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  5. It would probably not help and be sucked in, so what is the point? Also it would reduce the airflow.
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    I have got BRAINS. (I Think.)

  6. This question has gotten asked a million times by our resident troll, but I don’t think you are one. You’ve been around longer and there are a few other tip offs, so:

    A bird going through a turbine engine usually does not destroy the engine. You end up with fricasse’e bird.

    First, the extra weight of the screen is cost prohibitive and not fuel efficient. The drag caused by the screen is also not fuel efficient.

    Second, the screen would decrease the airflow to the engine further reducing engine efficiency.

    Thirdly, pieces of the screen or grille could break off and ruin the turbine blades permanently and cause catastrophic damage in flight.

    Fourth, it’s better to just let the bird go through the engine, chances are that you might get a little puff of smoke and have no damage to the turbine. Hopefully you do not cause a flame out like Sulley’s; You end up with chopped bird.

    The better approach is to rid the airport areas of bird populations. There are a lot of different methods already used. Methods include: dogs, pulsing strobes, sound and light repellers, killing, nets, supersonic noisemakers, scare devices and habitat manipulation to make the airport environment unfriendly to bird populations.
    References :

  7. Warbird Pilot on March 8th, 2010 at 2:41 am

    Just when you thought it was safe to go back to answering questions….
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  8. Because the engine against a bird has a 90% chance of just killing the bird. When the bird hits the metal grate in front of the engine and takes it into the engine with it, the engine has a 0% chance of surviving the strike without catastrophic damage.
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  9. We need a grill against questions that have been asked for 1000 times or more!

    Adding to Pilot T’s detailed description, have you ever thought of ice formation on these grills at high altitudes?

    Here is a few of earlier questions
    References :
    http://answers.yahoo.com/search/search_result;_ylt=Ak4rDugMIgLr6yN43CMCnDUjzKIX;_ylv=3?keywords_filter=all&p=jet+engine+grill&keywords_search=%3CSPAN%3E%3CSPAN%3E%3CSPAN%3E%3CSPAN%3ESearch+Answers%3C%2FSPAN%3E%3C%2FSPAN%3E%3C%2FSPAN%3E%3C%2FSPAN%3E&keywords_search=%3CSPAN%3E%3CSPAN%3E%3CSPAN%3E%3CSPAN%3ESearch+Answers%3C%2FSPAN%3E%3C%2FSPAN%3E%3C%2FSPAN%3E%3C%2FSPAN%3E

  10. because it would act like a grater at speed/full power
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