Researchers Use Toy Planes to Study Bird Strikes

HURON, Ohio—Researchers want to fly remote-controlled airplanes near Lake Erie to determine whether lighting systems could scare away birds and cut down the number of mid-air collisions with flying fowl.

Wildlife biologists hope the study will help them understand more about how birds react to planes.

Instead of real planes, they plan on using hobby planes with wingspans up to 9 feet.

Researchers with the National Wildlife Research Center office in Sandusky want to conduct the study midway between Cleveland and Toledo—close to where Huron River pouts into Lake Erie because there is a large seagull roost nearby.

First, they must get permission from the city of Huron.

"Obviously we want to protect the safety of the community, but the project itself is so important that we want to help the federal government study this avian problem," said Huron City Manager Andy White.

More attention is now being focused on airplane strikes after birds knocked out both engines of a jet and forced it down in New York in January. All 155 people aboard survived that incident as pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger ditched the jet safely in the Hudson River.

But data from Federal Aviation Administration show airplane collisions with birds have more than doubled at 13 major U.S. airports since 2000. Wildlife experts say more birds are living near cities and airports year round rather than migrating.

Researchers in Ohio decided to study the effects of lighting on birds after learning that a company that makes aviation lighting, Precise Flight in Bend, Ore., was experimenting with pulsing light systems to scare away birds.

The National Wildlife Research Center tested the idea and found that trucks mounted with the lights caused caged birds to try and avoid the lights, said Brad Blackwell, a researcher with the center.

Now researchers there must design the experiment they want to do with the hobby planes, which they plan to do in late June or July.

"We don't want to just fly an aircraft at a bunch of birds," Blackwell said.