Researchers test damage caused when drones collide with airplanes

There’s a new warning out about the risk that the growing number of unmanned drones is getting way too close to planes. Researchers at the University of Dayton found significant damage when they fired a small drone into a plane’s wing to show what could happen in a mid-air collision.

The two-pound drone was test-fired into a single-engine aircraft wing to mimic a mid-air collision at 238 miles per hour, tearing deep into the wing, fuel lines, and support structure, it likely would have landed safely.

So far this year, pilots have reported 2,000 drone sightings. Nationwide, 109,000 registered users own more than a million registered drones that are required to stay below 400 feet and five miles away from airports, but Embry-Riddle researchers recently documented 192 drone flights near Daytona Beach Airport in just a 13 day period. One in five posed a risk to aircrafts.

Read more at University of Dayton

Image Credit: Unsplash/Jared Brashier

-jk-