Barb-SAN
05-26-2009, 07:49 PM
In today's Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124328722028652079.html
Steve Osmek studies a radar screen carefully at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, but he's not looking at blips of airplanes. It's birds that light up his screen.
Mr. Osmek is a wildlife biologist testing a new avian radar system in the hopes that it will someday warn air-traffic controllers of birds flying toward the approach and departure paths of airliners, signaling possible danger, much as low-level wind-shear detection systems alert pilots....
....The FAA says it's still several years away, however, from putting bird-radar systems in control towers at commercial airports...
....Biologists have learned a lot about birds over the years based on how often they are hit by airplanes. Gulls, for example, are considered dumber than crows. FAA statistics show gulls collide with planes twice as often as other species.
And to illustrate this story...here's one of my photos from the other day when I was out "plane-spotting"
"Seagull contemplates powered flight"... ;) (SAN is on a migratory flyway too, and we have lots of seagulls).
Steve Osmek studies a radar screen carefully at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, but he's not looking at blips of airplanes. It's birds that light up his screen.
Mr. Osmek is a wildlife biologist testing a new avian radar system in the hopes that it will someday warn air-traffic controllers of birds flying toward the approach and departure paths of airliners, signaling possible danger, much as low-level wind-shear detection systems alert pilots....
....The FAA says it's still several years away, however, from putting bird-radar systems in control towers at commercial airports...
....Biologists have learned a lot about birds over the years based on how often they are hit by airplanes. Gulls, for example, are considered dumber than crows. FAA statistics show gulls collide with planes twice as often as other species.
And to illustrate this story...here's one of my photos from the other day when I was out "plane-spotting"
"Seagull contemplates powered flight"... ;) (SAN is on a migratory flyway too, and we have lots of seagulls).