There are no errant bird feathers or organic bird matter in the Hudson River.
Only H2O with a dash of sea salt. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is tacitly clear on this.
In the NTSB’s view Cactus 1549 plunked down into cleaner than natural spring water Hudson H2O with a dash of salt. Since no bird feathers and organic bird matter exist in the Hudson, at least not under NTSB ecology rules, all feather and organic bird matter discovered in Cactus 1549’s engines had to be brought and introduced to the river by these engines that ingested the feathers at 2800’ over the Bronx, making their introduction an ecological and Neornithe first in Hudson River history.
The Airbus Industrie 320 touches down on runways at 140kt to the relative wind when landing, give or take 5kt. In metric conversion just under 260km/h and essentially the speed that Cactus 1549 with a slight tail/cross wind combo touched down on the Hudson with the empennage underside contacting first, then more of the underside, then both engines gulping in crystal clear refreshing Hudson H2O with a pinch of salt under NTSB rules since the bottom hemispheric half of the engine intakes are slung beneath the fuselage bottom. http://www.airliners.net/aircraft-data/stats.main?id=23
A decent dishwasher shoots hot water at dishes and cutlery at about 70kt from pinholes on the spray armature(s). The CFM (Snecma and GE Aviation) 56-5B turbofan front intake diameter is nearly as wide as the average human adult is tall, it can accommodate hundreds of thousands of tiny dishwasher water jet sprays to form essentially a mini tsunami, and at 140kt this CFM dishwasher is a super industrial plate rinser. The inrush force of thousands of gallons of water at 140kt, tearing through the intake fan blades, outer bypass areas, with core water compressed by the Venturi of the compressor stages, will clean the most stubborn stain in its path if wasn’t already destroyed and ejected by prior violent midair compressor surge.
Bird feathers won’t be sticking around inside this dishwasher very long.
But apparently this feather did, a Canada Goose feather supplied, you guessed it, by the NTSB, supposedly discovered in Cactus 1549’s left engine outer bypass flow path on January 29, 2009 or as bag label suggests. Notice the yellow plastic ruler: “Report Strikes: http//wildlife-mitigatio[n]…Bird Strike Committee USA 20[XX]”? Of all the potential rulers to use, how convenient.
This 4” feather would weigh in the single grams bone dry. It somehow got snagged in the bypass which doesn’t have entangling appendages since designed to handle continuous 480kt air current at cruise speed and aerodynamically streamlined for minimal possible drag, that withstood over two minutes of 180-200kt wind blast and then 140kt tsunami of, getting back to reality, murky Hudson River goop. Where would it snag in the outer bypass and how? And after snagging how would it stick around in 200kt wind? And after somehow surviving the 200kt tornado, how would it survive a 140kt bath?
The Incredibly Materializing Previously Invisible Bird Matter in NTSB press advisory chronology:
“A visual examination of the [#1 or left] engine did not reveal evidence of organic material[Italics mine]; there was evidence of soft body impact damage.” (NTSB ‘Second Update’ Jan. 24, 2009)
Impact damage after a 140kt wet Big Apple welcome, you don’t say? An army of NTSB inspectors poured over this engine from the afternoon of Jan. 23 onward, the unit recovered off the river bottom, and were unable to spot any evidence of goose matter after hours of intense examination.
“The left (#1) engine, which was recovered from the Hudson River on January 23 and subsequently shipped to the manufacturer in Cincinnati where the NTSB is directing a teardown, was found to contain bird remains. The organic material found in the right (#2) engine has also been confirmed to be bird remains. [Third Update, Feb. 4, 2009].
Going from “did not reveal” to “found to contain remains”
missed on the 23rd-24th of January but yet remarkably discovered some days later. Again, how convenient.
“The bird remains found in both engines of US Airways flight 1549 have been identified by the Smithsonian Institution's Feather Identification Laboratory as Canada Goose (Branta canadensis).” [Fourth Update, Feb. 12, 2009]
Have to hand it to the NTSB, it’s tough to spin whoppers, but they try.
Critical to understanding the NTSB slight of hand, this Board claimed to find only feathers and feather fragments. Not goose blood and the only organic matter besides tissue in which a forensic DNA lab can compile a DNA ‘barcode’ and compare to known geese DNA in their database.
By the Smithsonian bird strike lab’s admission, viable DNA is typically only found in 52.6% of all blood and tissue samples that arrive to their lab within one week of the bird strike event; and in 68% of all blood and tissue samples stretching out to the full 116 day Smithsonian study limit. For some reason the longer the wait the more viable the DNA. Without viable DNA the best precision the Smithsonian can attain are Order and Family. But Branta is the genus, canadensis the species and Branta canadensis belongs to the family Anatidae which contains 146 different species in 40 genera. No goose blood or tissue were recovered, only feathers and feather fragments, ruling out any chance that the Smithsonian Feather Lab or any other DNA-identified them as Canada Geese.
“DNA analysis is only used in birdstrike cases that have blood, tissue or if the identification cannot be made based on feather morphology. Furthermore, viable DNA is not found in approximately 32% of the cases (Dove et al., MS in prep, 2007) and the identifications are made mainly to the Order and Family level using microscopic and morphological methods.”
(THE BIRDSTRIKE IDENTIFICATION PROGRAM AT THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION AND NEW RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DNA SAMPLING )
Hold on. Let’s say the Smithsonian did confirm Branta canadensis. The NTSB still has to demonstrate for the sake of scientific legitimacy that these feathers and fragments were ingested in Cactus 1549’s engines at 2800’, a defying of astronomical odds, and not scooped from the Hudson or salted, no pun intended, after the engines were shipped to Ohio.
It's Not Called 'Snarge' For Nothing
The CFM 56-5B has 36 individual fan disk blades direct driven by the low pressure turbine stage. At 100% N1 the fan blades rotate at approximately 5000rpm. That’s 83.33 revolutions per second and 0.012 second per revolution. A320’s climb at 90-95% N1 for a fan blade rotation range between 75-to-79.16 revolution per second.
Under normal climb N1, the 36 individual fan disk blades on each Cactus 1549 engine would complete a single revolution ranging from 0.0126-to-0.013 seconds.
In this 0.0126-to-0.013 second interval, Cactus 1549 climbing at 180kt forward velocity, will travel 3.69’-to-3.7’. The average length of a mature Canada Geese is 3.2’ or 38” long. Therefore, each of Cactus 1549’s fan blades would slice a goose into approximately 1.16” inch segments at 180kt. There will not be any 4” long Canada Goose feather hanging around after introduced to 36 individual CFM 56-5B fan disk blades moving forward in the air at 180kt and rotating 75-to-79 times per second.
That 4” Canada Geese feather sample in the labeled plastic bag did not wind up in that left engine at 2800’ over the Bronx or any other height. If was honestly extracted from that engine.
The Bird Cannon
To pass certification turbofan manufacturers fire every conceivable airborne object into a test engine that their fleet engines could ingest in any stage of flight. They have to be durable enough to take a beating. A multi cannon apparatus fires multiple dead birds wrapped in a plastic sabot weighing up to 8lb, twice the typical pass standard, from close range into the test engine spinning full honk, impacting the core and bypass in several different areas, to simulate multiple bird strike from takeoff roll to cruise to touchdown. The engine is subject to a Draconian litany of abuse to find out how much punishment the intended production line can survive. Sand, volcanic ash, hail, water, snow, ice and birds fired at nearly 450kt from close range. Each test is super high-speed filmed for super slow motion analysis. Not even at 450kt will a 4” goose feather that winds up traveling through the bypass, as on Cactus 1549’s NTSB sample, remain 4” after shredded by the fan disk and then flash barbecued by the exhaust. The engines must also pass the ‘blade off’ test. The housing must be strong enough to contain a titanium blade snapping off at maximum rpm, enough energy to toss a mid-size car 100’ in the air, from breaching the housing and penetrating the cabin or wing. No goose will ever dent, tear or deform any part of the bypass area or core itself. However, a snapped blade caused by bird strike can and will render visible damage in the form of circumferential scoring but only after the bird and its feathers are long gone except for blood smear as the only evidence that a bird was ingested. A bird strikes the fan disk at such velocity and momentum that the now sliced bits continue traveling straight on through the engine; not pushed laterally against the side walls.
The tagged NTSB feather sample is so phony it’s comical. US Airways and GE Aviation appear to be so desperate for people to believe that Cactus 1549 hit birds that either or both planted this feather and five other feather part samples. When the evidence is fake you can rest assured that the reasoning is just as contrived.
That feather looks too good to have passed through the super CuisineArt shredder of the GE 56-5B fan disk on Cactus 1549 and why bird strike remains are dubbed “snarge.” There’s nothing left other than blood spattering as the bird is ripped to shreds and ejected in the blink of an eye. That feather is in too good condition to come from a midair goose buffet 2800’ over the Bronx.
If Cactus 1549 really did ingest Canada Geese why only feathers recovered and no blood?
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