Under an FAA proposal released on Friday, the cores of newly designed aircraft powerplants would need to continue to run after ingesting a medium or large size bird while operating at the lower fan speeds associated with takeoff climbs or landing approaches. Current FAA regulations ensure bird ingestion capability of only the engine fan blades.
The proposed test consists of firing at the engine core the equivalent to the largest bird currently required. For departure, the test bird would be fired at 250 knots, with the mechanical engine fan speed set at the lowest expected speed when climbing through 3,000 feet agl. After bird ingestion, the proposal would require that the engine complies with post-test run-on requirements similar to those in the existing rules.
If the applicant determines that no bird mass will enter the core during the test at the 250-knots/climb condition, then the applicant would be required to perform the test simulating descent configuration. For this test, the bird would be fired at 200 knots with the engine fan speed set at the lowest fan speed expected when descending through 3,000 feet agl on approach to landing.
Applicants would be required to comply with post-test run-on requirements that are the same as the final six minutes of the existing post-test run-on requirements for large flocking birds. This is based on the assumption that the airplane will already be lined up with the runway.
Comments on the notice of proposed rulemaking are due by September 4. Meanwhile, the European Aviation Safety Agency notified the FAA that it intends to incorporate requirements similar to those proposed into its engine bird ingestion rule.