Shellfish pose new danger for F-22s

[unhappycamper]

Shellfish pose new danger for F-22s
Staff report
Posted : Wednesday Apr 16, 2008 6:46:11 EDT

The Air Force is waging a war against emerging, low-tech threats, and is developing unconventional weapons for a new kind of irregular warfare.

The threats: free-falling clams. The counteroffensive: planting nauseating grass.

That’s the lay of the battlefield in the Air Force’s fight against birds. According to a service press release, officials at Langley Air Force Base, Va., are increasingly worried about the threat posed to shiny new F-22 Raptors by local gulls. The Raptors are invisible to the most highly advanced missiles, but can’t avoid the clams and mussels dropped by the gulls.

The gulls drop shellfish onto Langley’s runways to break open the creatures and eat the insides. But left on the runway, the shells could ruin an engine or, worse, cause a crash if sucked into an air intake.

Shellfish aren’t the only threats to aircraft engines.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/04/airforce_bash_041508w/



uhc comment: Great. :sarcasm: Let's kill the planet to keep those Raptors safe.

[formercia]

1. Al Queda in Virginia

They are really terrorist UAVs. If you look closely, sometimes you can find one with the inscription:

Romani ite Domum.

[dipsydoodle]

2. What does that mean ?

Eat this sucker. :)

[formercia]

3. Latin

Romans go home.

Literal translation:

Romans go all of you home.

The difficulty in conjugating verbs was one of the reasons for the downfall of the Roman Empire. :evilgrin:

[dipsydoodle]

6. Thank you

should've foreseen that :rofl:

[formercia]

5. From 'The life of Brian':

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079470/quotes


Centurion: What's this, then? "Romanes eunt domus"? People called Romanes, they go, the house?
Brian: It says, "Romans go home. "
Centurion: No it doesn't ! What's the latin for "Roman"? Come on, come on !
Brian: Er, "Romanus" !
Centurion: Vocative plural of "Romanus" is?
Brian: Er, er, "Romani" !
Centurion: "Eunt"? What is "eunt"? Conjugate the verb, "to go" !
Brian: Er, "Ire". Er, "eo", "is", "it", "imus", "itis", "eunt".
Centurion: So, "eunt" is...?
Brian: Third person plural present indicative, "they go".
Centurion: But, "Romans, go home" is an order. So you must use...?

Brian: Aaagh ! The imperative !
Centurion: Which is...?
Brian: Aaaagh ! Er, er, "i" !
Centurion: How many Romans?
Brian: Aaaaagh ! Plural, plural, er, "ite" !
Centurion: "Domus"? Nominative? "Go home" is motion towards, isn't it?
Brian: Dative !

Brian: Aaagh ! Not the dative, not the dative ! Er, er, accusative, "Domum" !
Centurion: But "Domus" takes the locative, which is...?
Brian: Er, "Domum" !
Centurion: Understand? Now, write it out a hundred times.
Brian: Yes sir. Thank you, sir. Hail Caesar, sir.
Centurion: Hail Caesar ! And if it's not done by sunrise, I'll cut your balls off.

[sakabatou]

10. LMAO

[hobbit709]

4. If clamshells will bring them down that easily

what would REAL shells do to them on a battlefield?

[Crowman1979]

7. It's called a FOD walk!

And apparently the USAF doesn't do it that often. Basically a FOD walk is picking up trash on the runway and taxiway, which happens often in the Naval Aviation community. That and Owl decoys help to scare off the birds.

[unhappycamper]

8. I seem to recall that SU-29's were designed with special covers

over the engine intakes to take care of this problem. But then again, the SU-29 was designed to land pretty much anywhere you had enough room.

[saigon68]

9. Yes the FOD walk

Walking the 10,000 foot runway and the taxiways at first light to get rid of nuts, bolts and rocks.

Most of the stuff came from tires. In spite of the FOD Shakers located at all entrances to the taxiways and runway

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IBT/is_3_60/ai_114475788

* Do not leave prepared surfaces unless absolutely necessary. (No mud bogging!)

* Drive OVER, not around the metal FOD Shakers and accomplish vehicle FOD checks

* Park on concrete, asphalt or airfield matting surfaces as much as possible

* Do not cut across the aircraft parking ramps

Currently all aircraft deployed here are props, and thus less susceptible to a FOD ingestion incident than a jet, but many of our transient cargo aircraft are jets, so we must protect those assets. Additionally, you never know when a fighter aircraft may have to divert in here due to weather or an aircraft malfunction. Most fighter aircraft are extremely susceptible to FOD ingestion. CE and OSS/Airfield Management can only do so much to keep our ramps and runways clean, they need the help of all airfield users. Help them out, exercise FOD awareness to keep us safe and mission capable.

MAJ RICH DOYLE

Chief, Wing Safety Deployed