BIRD STRIKES AND THE AIR FORCE

The first recorded bird strike accident was in 1912, when a gull got caught in an air- craft control cable. The pilot was killed in the crash. Since that first squaring-off, man and bird have been engaged in an accelerating contest in which there can be no winner. At first, birdstrikes were not really much of a problem. Aircraft were slow, and birds were able to learn to move out of their paths in time to avoid a collision. But, with the coming of the jet age, the problem began to take on more sinister proportions. At this point, birds ceased to be a minor annoyance and became instead a serious hazard to the safe operation of aircraft