MJB
Well-known member
As a former aircraft engineer in the RAF, I find it extraordinary that a combat helicopter windshield specification that ought to include the ability to prevent penetration by small-arms fire didn't prevent bird-strike penetration at around 90 to 120 knots - in everyday terms, 'armoured' windshields. I appreciate that helicopters by their nature have to be as light as possible, but this involved a brute of a machine that includes in its roles the insertion and extraction of special forces or downed aircrew, roles that demand protection of pilots and vulnerable systems.
I've seen birdstrike damage to fighter and ground-attack aircraft - one instance involved a Buccaneer at 500 knots hitting a goose, where the wing leading edge was holed and the main spar dented to a depth of two centimetres, but impact inertia increases with the cube of the weight of the object hit and the square of the speed (If I've remembered correctly a course taken over 40 years ago!).
However, from what is available on-line, the BoI conclusion seems plausible. It would be of interest to know just what the windshields can withstand.
That said, low flying over known goose concentrations is providing a hostage to fortune. That was why the RAF (certainly up to the 1990s) had mapped 'no-low-fly' areas according to season to minimise birdstrike risk in operational training.
MJB
