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It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a robotic bald eagle

One man\'s recently patented design is now at the leading edge of a multimillion-dollar industry: combating bird-aircraft strike hazards.

Federal News Network Staff

June 16, 2010 3:49 pm

< a min read

Airports and airlines are getting desperate as planes increasingly run afoul of birds. Reported cases of bird-strike quadrupled in the U.S. between 1990 and 2008, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Airports world-wide are resorting to a growing array of scare tactics. Robert Musters is a Dutch ornithologist, falconer and mechanical engineer who has spent years blending his passions to create a lifelike “RoBird” that flies by flapping its plastic wings. His company, BV GreenX, recently patented his design and is now at the leading edge of a multimillion-dollar industry: combating bird-aircraft strike hazard, or BASH as it’s known in the business, the Wall Street Journal reports. The remotely piloted goshawk flies thanks to a retractable propeller in its nose and soars menacingly to scare off feathered pests.

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