May 14: FOD doesn’t pull its punches, and neither should you when fighting it. A Cebu Pacific A320 airliner had to make an emergency landing at Puerto Princesa Airport in the Philippines after unidentified “foreign debris” carved a hole into its nose landing gear.
Bird Strikes Increasing
April 30: University researchers from Wales and Argentina report in Science Magazine that bird strikes are increasing — in both aviation and non-aviation spheres — and that the conditions causing bird strikes may also be responsible for subtle changes in ecological and climate systems.
VIDEO: F-16 FOD Repair
March 24: Do you enjoy spending your workday with chains, ratchets and flashlights? Watch three US Air Force technicians repair a fighter jet engine damaged by FOD.
Wearable FOD Control
May 20: Wouldn’t it be great if you could bring your portable electronic devices into a FOD-sensitive area without having to worry about tracking their location, maintaining check-in and check-out records or even losing them inside of an engine or housing? Take a look at these advances in “wearable” devices that you can put on like a vest.
VIDEO: Airport FOD Program
May 7: The City of San Antonio’s airport system describes visually its comprehensive FOD program, including meetings, inspections, awareness efforts and performance awards.
Drone Regs
Buy The Best Drone, a buyer’s guide site, has put together a page of government regulations, information and commentary for people interested in flying small unmanned aerial vehicles.
Quadcopter. Image: U.S. Air Force.
De-Icing Agreement
May 21: NASA and the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada have renewed a partnership agreement to continue research in the area of aircraft engine icing. It continues for an additional five years research in a variety of critical areas, including engine ice crystal icing and testing practices for thermal ice protection systems.
Amtrak Mystery
May 20, 26: Federal investigators are trying to piece together why a passenger train entered a sharp curve at twice the speed limit before it crashed on May 12, killing eight and injuring over 200 people. A foreign object might have struck the windshield, and reports from other trains in the area indicate that someone may have been throwing rocks at trains. The engineer can’t remember what happened because he was injured during the incident, which has prompted Amtrak officials to begin installing video cameras inside of its locomotive cabs as a safety measure.
