One
situation that I can think of, that is very likely
to occur would be flying into a swarm of bugs. Even a coarse screen
such as Al
has installed could easily
become clogged with dead bugs choking off all intake air and causing
the engine
to stop running.
Hard to
imagine where I could run into
such a density of bugs; however, if I have a theory that they would not
get in
the intake. The scoop is located behind the maximum diameter of the
fuselage. The bugs (that didn’t get smashed) would be accelerated
outward away from the fuselage as the plane passed by, and because of
their
greater momentum (than the air), would not come back toward the surface
sufficiently to enter the scoop as the fuselage converges.
OK; at
least that’s the theory. I
can only find out by putting the plane in a wind tunnel and releasing a
swarm
of bees J.
Oh; BTW
Jerry, the air here in coastal
CA where the prevailing breeze is off the ocean has very little dust.
And
the Velocity will never (I hope) take off from a dirt strip.
Al