WHERE THE BIRD BEATS THE AEROPLANE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 108, 8 May 1937, Page 27

WHERE THE BIRD BEATS THE AEROPLANE

A flock. of pigeons flying over Chicago airport several days ago narrowly missed losing several members in a collision with a Douglas airliner which was leaving the field, writes Wayne Thomas in the "Chicago Tribune." The airliner pilot managed to miss the birds by pulling into a steep climb just off the ground, a manoeuvre not attempted in a large, heavily-loaded machine.

The point was not that the pilot cared about killing a pigeon or two, but that he was trying to save his passengers from a danger too seldom appreciated by the casual airline traveller. Aeroplanes have been severelydamaged and in several instances crashes have been caused by collisions with birds. ■

An idea of the amount of damage which can be done by a bird which weighs not more than five pounds, feathers and all, can be gathered from the story of Pilot Mai Freeburg, of North-west Airlines. It was on April 12, 1932, that Pilot Freeburg, a co-pilot, and eight passengers left St. Paul for Chicago. Seventy miles to the:south-east, over Wabasha, Minnesota, a mallard duel: struck the propeller of the left-win!! motor. The aeroplane shuddered, thci propeller lost a blade, and an instant later the motor jerked itself out of the. ship. It did not fall clear, but lodged in the landing gear. , _ : Freeburg, flying with the remaining two motors, headed out over the Mississippi River, threw the aeroplane about

until the motor dropped off, and then made a landing in a farmer's field. The body of the duck was found buried in the left wing of the aeroplane.

. Twice1 United Airlines aeroplanes flying from Chicago to Cleveland have struck birds, once a goose and once a duck. In each case the bird struck the glass windshield at the cockpit, and ploughed through. Once the pilot was knocked unconscious and the bird went through the partition between the cockpit and the passenger's cabin. The 'other time the bird lodged among the flying instruments. Both times safe landings were made by the copilots.

The instances cited are the closest to serious accidents that modern transports have come after brushes with birds, but during early flying days a number of fatal crashes were caused by birds striking ships, damaging wings or propellers, or jamming controls. The modern all-metal ships withstand greater strains than did the earlier wood-and-wire machines. . ■ .

Pilots know, however, "that if a bird strikes a whirling propeller it may well jerk the engine out 'of even a modern aeroplane; so they take care to avoid birds in the air.

Before forty acres of swamp land in the western half of Chicago airport was drained seagulls from the lake front gathered there in droves during cloudy or windy weather. '.They were a menace to flyers, but since that portion of the field has been drained and graded and hard runways have been put in, the birds have stayed away.