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This is what a typical jet engine looks like:

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Considering the horrible dangers with birds getting in there and crashing planes, why doesn't it look like this?

enter image description here

Why don't they have a "grating" in front like that, which would prevent the bird from ever getting into the blades?

Of course it doesn't need to look exactly like I have quickly sketched it up above, but why isn't that general idea used?

Caymon Sawaged
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  • Jets are designed to deal with smaller birds. See https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/nyregion/22engines.html#:~:text=Special%20offer%3A%20Subscribe%20for%20%241,Flight%201549%2C%20can%20be%20larger. – copper.hat Dec 30 '22 at 22:56
  • Of greater hazard to jets during near-ground operations is ingestion of rocks, dirt, dropped tools and trash. many soviet-era jet fighters designed to take off from relatively unimproved airstrips contain ballistic separators which are designed to strip out foreign objects from the airflow entering the engine inlets. In the west, this function was furnished by FOD (foreign object detection )patrols whose job it was to sweep the runway with a line of people shoulder-to-shoulder who searched for and picked up anything that the engines might suck up upon takeoff from aircraft carriers. – niels nielsen Jan 01 '23 at 02:36
  • Even a well-engineered grate reduces engine performance significantly more than people realize. Jet engine compressors, which are really rapidly-rotating little wings, are incredibly sensitive to pressure differences—managing pressure ratios is what they do. Stationary industrial turbines are often offered with safety cages, But making the “cage” small enough to reduce airplane drag reduces engine performance by about 5% which equates to billions in fuel costs. It was found to be far cheaper to improve safety processes instead. – Max R Jan 02 '23 at 23:18

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