Midnight Mike
2008-04-13, 11:59 PM
LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va: The Air Force's newest and most technologically advanced fighter, the F-22 Raptor, is under attack here.
Free-falling clams dropped by in-flight birds are regular air threats to the F-22 as gulls drop fist-sized mollusks on the Langley Air Force Base runway to break open the shell-fish appetizer.
The birds' shelling device just happens to be a convenient launch pad for the F-22. Although the gulls remove half their mess -- slurping up tender meat from the runway -- they leave behind hard, brittle sea shells for an F-22 to suck up through its engine intake that can cause severe damage.
http://www.defencetalk.com/news/publish ... 015500.php (http://www.defencetalk.com/news/publish/airforce/Langley_Officials_Fight_to_Keep_F-22s_from_Being_Damaged100015500.php)
Free-falling clams dropped by in-flight birds are regular air threats to the F-22 as gulls drop fist-sized mollusks on the Langley Air Force Base runway to break open the shell-fish appetizer.
The birds' shelling device just happens to be a convenient launch pad for the F-22. Although the gulls remove half their mess -- slurping up tender meat from the runway -- they leave behind hard, brittle sea shells for an F-22 to suck up through its engine intake that can cause severe damage.
http://www.defencetalk.com/news/publish ... 015500.php (http://www.defencetalk.com/news/publish/airforce/Langley_Officials_Fight_to_Keep_F-22s_from_Being_Damaged100015500.php)