Federal Aviation Administration Considering New Bird-Ingesting Operation Requirement for Airplane Engines

The Federal Aviation Administration recently announced that it is considering a new requirement that airplane manufacturers can demonstrate that their aircraft engines can remain operational even after ingesting a medium sized bird. In a new federal register notice of proposed rulemaking, the FAA states that manufacturers must show that if a bird is sucked into one of the engines during take-off or landing, with the fan operating at the lowest expected speed, the engine would still remain operational.

The action comes nine years following US Airways Flight 1549, which was forced to make an emergency landing on the Hudson River in New York after it struck a flock of geese after taking off from LaGuardia airport. Following the incident, the FAA started looking in to how to improve engine durability and avoid similar incidents in the future. In 2015, the Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee produced a report that modern fan blades are wider than those when the initial “medium flocking bird” test was developed, consequently the standards and regulations need to be updated.

To view the official notice in the Federal Register, click here: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/07/06/2018-14270/medium-flocking-bird-test-at-climb-condition