Planes, birds, microscopes, and DNA: Smithsonian scientists do more than investigate bird-aircraft collisions - they push the limits of bird identification

摘要

It's sad but true. Birds and planes have been colliding since the dawn of powered aviation. In fact, Orville Wright hit a bird, probably a Red-winged Blackbird, over an Ohio cornfield as early as 1905, not even two years after he and his brother Wilbur made their historic first flights. Because most early collisions resulted in the loss of a bird's life, not in damage to aircraft or human injury, the issue of bird strikes flew under the radar of air-safety teams for most of the century. But as air travel became more popular, and as aircraft became faster, bigger, more expensive, and more numerous, the problem grew more acute.