Portent

This occured in April 2007 at Manchester Ringway airport in the UK.  A Thomson 757 is taking off- a litte bird flies across the runway and is sucked into the engine where it is shredded and cooked. This is called a bird strike and is not good for engines. I screen grabbed the video just as the engine has ingested the bird- spot the big flame! This looks like an afterburner but commercial jets don't use (or as far as I know) possess afterburning capabilities! Afterburner is used by military jets to make them go much faster by injecting fuel directly into the output turbine of a jet engine. It drinks fuel, gives a big flame but provides a lot of extra thrust.

The video which is ten minutes long shows the jet climbing after the strike and eventually landing with fire engines etc on hand just in case. While the aircraft is climbing you can see and hear the engine burping away, blowing out smoke rings and the pilot declares Mayday- the code for an emergency. You can hear the conversation between control and the pilot. Everyone remains totally cool- the sheer professionalism is very reassuring- you can see why pilots are so well paid. Equally reassuring was the sight of the aircraft climbing with one engine out. 

A bird strike can damage turbine blades in an engine and potentially wreck the engine if any blade part is damaged or breaks off as the turbines blade balance is amazing.  In an engineering lab once I hand spun a turbine blade and the very low friction bearing and perfect balance meant that it kept rotating for several minutes.

There is an apocryphal tale about bird strike testing- which I quote from Wikipedia.  Birdstrike simulators (chicken guns) are currently used by aircraft manufacturers and/or aviation authorities (such as the FAA, UK CAA or NASA) to test aircraft against birdstrikes, and usually work by firing a (dead) chicken at the aircraft. According to the stories, British Rail (or in other versions an institute known as the USPA) borrows this device to test the strength of the windshields on their high speed trains. On impact, the chicken shatters the windshield, breaks the operators chair, and comes to rest embedded in the engine. British Rail (or the USPA) asks the FAA for help, and receives a one-sentence reply: Thaw the chicken. 

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