NMX‑BST‑30 / Rev 00 / airworthiness test / bird strike 2026 · Product Page

NMX-BST-30 · ENGINEERED TO ORDER — BIRD-STRIKE TEST FACILITY

Take the strike. Keep flying.

Name: Bird-Strike Test Facility
Brand: Neometrix

Birds and aircraft share the sky, and the airworthiness codes are blunt about what that means: the windshield must not be penetrated, the intake and leading edges must keep their structure, the blades must survive — and the aircraft must keep flying. The proof is a test: a pneumatic launcher accelerates a standard-mass gelatine bird surrogate to the closing speed of flight and delivers it into the real component, mounted, instrumented and filmed. A high-pressure air reservoir and a quick-opening valve provide the energy — compressed air only, released in milliseconds, spent in one fully contained, interlocked, recorded event. We build the pneumatics, the launch tube and sabot sections, the fixtures, the containment and the controls — our high-pressure-air and test-facility franchise pointed at certification. Engineered to order — no delivered facility is claimed.

Enquire — bird-strike facility Capability sheet (PDF)

Illustrative image, not a delivered facility — a bird-strike test facility hall: a long pale-grey steel launch tube on heavy stands running toward an enclosed target chamber, with a high-pressure air reservoir and valve section at the near end, neat pipework and a protective barrier, no text and no people

Fig · 01 The launcher hall — reservoir, quick-opening valve and launch tube running to an enclosed, instrumented target chamber — illustrative, not a delivered facility

Proves

the strikewindshields, intakes, edges

Launches

a gelatine birdstandard mass, sabot-carried

Drive

HP airreservoir + quick valve

Records

everythingvelocity, imaging, strain

Built

to orderenclosed + interlocked

ISO 9001 / 14001 Engineered to order Airworthiness test facilities High-pressure pneumatics Noida · India

Overview

It is the aircraft’s speed that does the damage.

A bird strike is not an exotic event — it is a routine hazard of flying, concentrated around take-off, climb-out and approach. And the physics is lopsided: the bird is nearly stationary, so almost all of the impact energy comes from the aircraft’s own speed. The airworthiness codes — civil and military alike — therefore demand demonstrated proof, not analysis alone: the windshield that must not be penetrated at cruise-representative speed, the leading edge and intake that must keep the structure behind them, the blade that must take an ingestion-class impact. The proof comes from a facility built to deliver exactly one thing: a known mass at a known speed into a real component, with every microsecond recorded.

Illustrative image, not a delivered facility — the target end of a bird-strike rig: a curved transparent aircraft windshield panel clamped at an angle in a heavy steel fixture frame with fine instrumentation wiring, two high-speed cameras on tripods and flat panel lights aimed at it inside a sheet-steel containment enclosure, no text and no people

Fig · 02 The target chamber — the real article clamped at its specified angle of incidence, instrumented, lit and watched by synchronised high-speed cameras — illustrative, not a delivered facility

Reverse the reference frame. Since it is the aircraft’s speed that matters, the rig turns the problem around: the component stands still, and the bird surrogate is accelerated to the closing speed. The surrogate is a standard-mass gelatine block — at these speeds a real bird behaves like a fluid, and decades of test practice show gelatine reproduces the same spreading, fluid-like load. No animal is involved, and the mass and consistency are controlled, repeatable and calibrated.

Compressed air does the work. A high-pressure air reservoir is charged to the pressure the test demands; a quick-opening valve releases it into the launch tube in milliseconds. The soft gelatine block rides in a sabot — the carrier that fits it to the tube — and a stripper section arrests the sabot before the target, so only the surrogate arrives. Light gates at the tube exit time the launch velocity, because a certification result without a calibrated velocity is no result at all.

The event is the evidence. The article — a windshield, a canopy, a leading-edge section, a blade coupon — is mounted at its specified angle of incidence in a stiff, instrumented fixture: strain gauges, load cells, deflection. Synchronised high-speed cameras capture the impact at thousands of frames per second. What comes out is an evidence pack — calibrated mass and velocity, imaging, structural response, pass or fail against the requirement — in the form an airworthiness authority accepts.

The whole facility exists for an event that lasts a few milliseconds. Everything around it — the reservoir, the interlocks, the cameras, the calibration — exists so that when those milliseconds are over, nobody has to argue about what happened.

The Codes Demand Proof

Demonstrated, not argued

Windshields, intakes, leading edges and blades must be shown to take the strike — a real component, a standard mass, a calibrated speed, and the aircraft’s ability to keep flying proved by test.

Compressed Air Only

Charged, released, contained

The launcher’s energy is high-pressure air — charged, released in milliseconds through a quick-opening valve, and spent in one contained, interlocked, fully recorded event. No energetics of any kind.

Our Franchise, Pointed at Certification

Pneumatics + fixtures + DAQ

The reservoir and valve train are our high-pressure-air line; the tube, fixtures and containment our fabrication; the sequencing, permissives and data capture our test-facility controls.

Architecture

Launch, impact, evidence.

The schematic follows a test — mount the article, load the surrogate, launch at closing speed, record the impact — and shows the machine that runs it: the reservoir and valve, the tube and sabot sections, the velocity and imaging chain, and the instrumented, contained target end.

FIG · 03BST ARCHITECTURE · RESERVOIR & VALVE / TUBE & STRIPPER / VELOCITY & IMAGING · TARGET, CONTAINED & INTERLOCKED

Fig · 03 Deliver a known mass at a known speed into a real, instrumented component — on compressed air, inside containment, under interlocked permissives, with every microsecond recorded

Arc · 01

Reservoir & Quick-Opening Valve

The HP air reservoir holds the test’s energy; the valve releases it in milliseconds. Charge pressure sets launch velocity — compressed air only, no energetics.

Arc · 02

Launch Tube & Sabot Stripper

The tube is bore-matched to the surrogate and its sabot carrier; the stripper section arrests the sabot so only the gelatine surrogate reaches the article.

Arc · 03

Velocity & High-Speed Imaging

Light gates at the tube exit time the launch velocity; synchronised high-speed cameras and lighting capture the impact at thousands of frames per second.

Arc · 04

Target Fixture & Containment

The article mounted at its angle of incidence in a stiff, instrumented frame — inside a fully enclosed impact zone with debris containment and interlocked permissives.

Have a bird-strike, impact-certification or test-instrumentation requirement? Send the articles, the velocity envelope and the standard — a clause-by-clause compliance matrix within two working days · [email protected]

Send tender spec

Specifications

Reference facility, built to the article.

The parameters below describe a reference facility. The surrogate mass, the velocity envelope, the tube bore and length, the fixture set and the imaging fit all follow from what is to be certified — a transport windshield, a fast jet’s canopy, a leading-edge section or a blade coupon — and the standard it is certified to.

Illustrative image, not a delivered facility — the pneumatic end of a bird-strike rig: a high-pressure air reservoir vessel with its quick-opening valve section flanged to the launch tube, a small valve train with regulators and blank gauges, and a compact control cabinet on a painted frame, no text and no people

Fig · 04 The pneumatic end — reservoir, valve train and controls: the high-pressure-air discipline our compressed-air and bottle-test lines are built on — illustrative, not a delivered facility

Where impact facilities go wrong

In the calibration and the repeatability, not the impact. A launch whose velocity is not measured to a calibrated standard proves nothing to an authority; a surrogate whose mass and consistency drift makes results incomparable; a sabot that is not cleanly stripped corrupts the impact it was meant to enable; a fixture that is not stiff enough measures itself instead of the article; and imaging that is not synchronised to the event leaves the milliseconds that matter unrecorded.

So the velocity chain is calibrated end to end, the surrogate preparation is a controlled procedure, the stripper geometry is proven in commissioning, the fixtures are engineered stiffer than the articles they hold, and the cameras, gates and DAQ run on a common synchronised timebase. The measure of the facility is that two launches at the same setting tell the same story — and that the story stands up in front of the authority.

Full specification — expand

System	Bird-strike test facility — a pneumatic-launcher airworthiness instrument: reservoir & valve, launch tube & sabot sections, instrumented target fixtures, containment, imaging & DAQ; engineered, built, commissioned & calibrated
Function	Proves windshields, canopies, intake structures, leading edges & blade coupons take a bird impact at flight speed — certification evidence for civil & military airworthiness codes
Principle	The bird is nearly stationary in a real strike, so the rig reverses the frame: a standard-mass surrogate is accelerated to the closing speed and delivered into the real, stationary component
Drive	HP compressed-air reservoir + quick-opening valve (millisecond release) — charge pressure sets velocity; compressed air only, no energetics
Surrogate	Standard-mass gelatine block — fluid-like behaviour at impact speed reproduces the real load; controlled, repeatable preparation; no animal testing
Tube & Sabot	Bore-matched launch tube; sabot carrier for the soft surrogate; stripper section arrests the sabot — only the surrogate arrives
Velocity	Light gates / laser timing at the tube exit — calibrated launch velocity as a pass/fail parameter of the certification
Target	The real article at its specified angle of incidence in a stiff frame — strain gauges, load cells, deflection measurement
Imaging & DAQ	Synchronised high-speed cameras + lighting; transient DAQ for gauges & cells; sequence logging — the evidence pack the authority accepts
Safety	Fully enclosed impact zone with debris containment; interlocked permissives — no launch unless the enclosure is sealed and the zone is clear
Sourcing	The high-speed cameras and precision velocity & strain instrumentation are bought-in specialist items; Neometrix builds the pneumatics, tube & sabot sections, fixtures, containment, controls & DAQ integration, then commissions & calibrates
Status	Engineered to order · sized to the surrogate mass, velocity envelope & articles · grounded in delivered HP-air, test-facility & fixture franchises · no specific delivered bird-strike facility is claimed on this page

PDF · 1 page

Bird-Strike Test Facility — Capability Sheet

Tender Response

Send your articles, velocities & standard — compliance matrix in two working days

Variants

One instrument, the rig you certify on.

Requirements call it a bird-strike rig, an impact test facility, a windshield certification rig or a soft-body impact laboratory. The chain — reservoir, tube, surrogate, instrumented article, evidence — is common; the build follows the articles and the velocity envelope.

Var · 01

Windshield & Canopy Certification Rig

Fixtures for transparencies at incidence — the classic continue-safe-flight demonstration for cockpit glazing.

Var · 02

Leading-Edge & Intake-Structure Rig

Heavier articles, structure-behind-the-skin criteria — wing, empennage and intake sections proved against the strike.

Var · 03

Blade-Coupon Impact Rig

Smaller bore, higher speeds — fan and compressor blade coupons against ingestion-class soft-body impact.

Var · 04

Instrumentation, Imaging & Fixture Packages

For an existing facility — velocity chains, synchronised imaging, DAQ and fixtures upgraded and recalibrated.

Applications

Where it proves them.

Wherever an airframe part can meet a bird — and a code demands the demonstration.

A · 01Windshield & canopy certification

A · 02Wing & empennage leading edges

A · 03Intake structures

A · 04Fan & compressor blade coupons

A · 05Rotorcraft transparencies

A · 06Soft-body impact research

FAQ

Common questions.

Plain-language answers from the engineering team.

Q · 01 Why does bird-strike certification exist?

Because the hazard is routine and the consequences are not. Aircraft meet birds constantly — overwhelmingly at low altitude, around take-off and approach, at exactly the speeds where the impact energy is serious — and the aircraft has no choice about it. So the civil airworthiness codes (the FAR/CS-25 family and their relatives) and their military equivalents write the requirement directly: after a defined bird impact at a defined speed, the aircraft must be able to continue safe flight and landing. That cascades into component demands — a windshield that must not be penetrated, with the crew behind it protected; leading edges and intake structures that may deform but must keep the spar and systems behind them intact; engine blades that must take a soft-body ingestion without catastrophic failure. And the codes demand demonstration: analysis supports the design, but certification rests on a real component taking a real impact at a calibrated mass and speed, recorded well enough that the authority can see precisely what happened. That demonstrated event is what this facility manufactures.

Q · 02 How does the pneumatic launcher work?

On compressed air, end to end. A high-pressure air reservoir — the same engineering as our compressed-air and bottle-test lines — is charged to a pressure chosen for the launch velocity the test requires; the relationship is established during commissioning and refined by the measured result of every launch. Between the reservoir and the launch tube sits a quick-opening valve (or a burst-diaphragm section on some rigs): when the test is commanded, it opens in milliseconds, and the expanding air accelerates the surrogate down the tube. The tube’s bore and length are sized to reach the velocity envelope smoothly — a longer tube needs less pressure for the same speed. At the far end, the sabot stripper arrests the carrier, light gates time the surrogate’s exit velocity, and the surrogate flies a short, enclosed free path into the article. Then it is over: the reservoir is spent, the system is inert, and the next test begins with a deliberate, permissive-controlled charge. There are no energetics anywhere in the machine — the energy store is air pressure, and everything about its release is engineered, measured and contained.

Q · 03 Why a gelatine bird — and what is the sabot for?

Because at impact speeds, a bird behaves like a fluid — and gelatine reproduces that faithfully. In the milliseconds of a strike the material strength of a real bird is negligible compared to the pressures involved; what the structure experiences is a soft-body, fluid-like loading that spreads and flows across the surface. Decades of test practice have shown that a gelatine block of the standard mass (the codes define the bird masses — commonly around 1.8 kg / 4 lb for airframe cases, other masses for other requirements) delivers the same loading, with enormous practical advantages: the mass, density and consistency are controlled and repeatable, preparation is a documented procedure, and no animal is involved. The sabot solves a different problem: a soft gelatine block cannot seal against the tube or survive the acceleration alone, so it rides in a fitted lightweight carrier — the sabot — that takes the air load and guides it down the bore. Just before the target, the stripper section arrests the sabot mechanically, so the only thing that crosses the final gap and strikes the article is the surrogate itself. Clean separation is one of the things commissioning proves, because a sabot fragment reaching the target would corrupt the test.

Q · 04 What is measured, and what does a pass look like?

Everything the authority will ask about, in calibrated form. The two parameters that define the test itself are surrogate mass (weighed and documented at preparation) and launch velocity (timed by the light-gate chain at the tube exit, on calibrated instrumentation) — a result at an unverified speed certifies nothing. The event is captured by synchronised high-speed cameras from multiple angles at thousands of frames per second, which is how penetration, deformation, crack propagation and the surrogate’s spreading behaviour are actually seen. The article’s structural response is recorded on strain gauges, load cells and deflection measurement on a transient DAQ, time-locked to the imaging. What constitutes a pass is defined by the requirement, not the rig: a windshield case typically demands no penetration and no spall hazardous to the crew; a leading-edge case allows local deformation but demands the structure behind the skin survive; a blade coupon case is judged on damage class. The facility’s job is to make that judgment easy: one launch, at the right mass and speed, with an evidence pack — data, imaging, calibration certificates — that stands on its own.

Q · 05 How is the facility kept safe?

By running it as a laboratory instrument, not a spectacle. The impact zone is fully enclosed: the article, the final flight path and the space behind the target sit inside a containment structure that catches the surrogate remains, article fragments and any stripped-sabot debris — nothing leaves the enclosure. The launch itself is governed by interlocked permissives: the reservoir cannot be charged, and a launch cannot be commanded, unless the enclosure is sealed, the access doors are closed and confirmed, and the zone is verified clear — the same permissive discipline as our other energy-managed test facilities. The pneumatic system carries its own protections: relief valves on the reservoir, controlled venting so the system can always be returned to a zero-energy state, and a charge sequence that is deliberate and supervised rather than fast. Personnel are in the control room for every launch, with the event watched on cameras rather than through glass. And because the energy store is compressed air alone, the facility’s hazards are exactly the ones our high-pressure-air franchise manages every day — stored pressure, moving mass, and containment — engineered, interlocked and procedural.

Q · 06 What do you build, what is bought-in — and how does this relate to your other test facilities?

What Neometrix builds is the facility as a system: the pneumatic heart — reservoir, valve train, charge and vent controls, permissives — which is exactly the engineering of our dry oil-free compressed-air, high-pressure bottle-test and pressure-panel lines; the launch tube and sabot-handling sections, precision-fabricated and commissioning-proven; the target fixtures, engineered stiffer than the articles they hold, with incidence adjustment; the containment enclosure and interlocks; the integration of the velocity chain, high-speed imaging and transient DAQ into one synchronised timebase; and the commissioning, calibration and test procedures that make results certifiable. What is bought-in specialist is the high-speed cameras and lighting, the precision velocity and strain instrumentation, and consumables for surrogate preparation — selected and integrated by us. The family resemblance is deliberate: like our ejection-seat test facility, this is an airworthiness instrument that certifies the aircraft’s protection of its people; the HP air bottle test facility shares its pneumatic discipline; and our NDT and inspection systems are how an article is examined after the strike. Engineered to order — no specific delivered bird-strike facility is claimed on this page.

↗

The airworthiness-test line from Neometrix.

The facility that certifies the escape system, the high-pressure air discipline behind the launcher, and the inspection that examines the article after the strike — engineered at our Noida facility.

↗ Airworthiness Test

Ejection Seat Test Facility

The sibling instrument — certifying that the aircraft protects its people, by demonstration.

↗ HP Air

HP Air Bottle Test Facility

The high-pressure compressed-air discipline the launcher’s reservoir and valve train are built on.

↗ Post-Impact Inspection

NDT & Inspection Systems

How the article is examined after the strike — the flaw that imaging cannot see.

Browse all Neometrix product lines.

Get a quotation

Send the articles
and the velocities.

The defence programmes desk replies within two working days with a clause-by-clause compliance matrix and a budgetary quotation. Write to [email protected] or use the form.

Enquire — bird-strike facility Capability sheet (PDF) +91 7777 876 876

ISO 9001 / 14001 ENGINEERED TO ORDER — BIRD-STRIKE TEST FACILITY HP AIR RESERVOIR · QUICK-OPENING VALVE · LAUNCH TUBE & SABOT · INSTRUMENTED TARGET · CONTAINED & INTERLOCKED ENGINEERED IN NOIDA · INDIA

Take the strike. Keep flying.

It is the aircraft’s speed that does the damage.

Demonstrated, not argued

Charged, released, contained

Pneumatics + fixtures + DAQ

Launch, impact, evidence.

Reservoir & Quick-Opening Valve

Launch Tube & Sabot Stripper

Velocity & High-Speed Imaging

Target Fixture & Containment

Reference facility, built to the article.

Where impact facilities go wrong

One instrument, the rig you certify on.

Windshield & Canopy Certification Rig

Leading-Edge & Intake-Structure Rig

Blade-Coupon Impact Rig

Instrumentation, Imaging & Fixture Packages

Where it proves them.

Common questions.

The airworthiness-test line from Neometrix.

Ejection Seat Test Facility

HP Air Bottle Test Facility

NDT & Inspection Systems

Send the articles
and the velocities.

Similar Products

Share This Page

Take the strike. Keep flying.

It is the aircraft’s speed that does the damage.

Demonstrated, not argued

Charged, released, contained

Pneumatics + fixtures + DAQ

Launch, impact, evidence.

Reservoir & Quick-Opening Valve

Launch Tube & Sabot Stripper

Velocity & High-Speed Imaging

Target Fixture & Containment

Reference facility, built to the article.

Where impact facilities go wrong

One instrument, the rig you certify on.

Windshield & Canopy Certification Rig

Leading-Edge & Intake-Structure Rig

Blade-Coupon Impact Rig

Instrumentation, Imaging & Fixture Packages

Where it proves them.

Common questions.

The airworthiness-test line from Neometrix.

Ejection Seat Test Facility

HP Air Bottle Test Facility

NDT & Inspection Systems

Send the articlesand the velocities.

Similar Products

Share This Page

Send the articles
and the velocities.