# Can a spider stop a 747 ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 25, 2001, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-spider-stop-a-747/95137 "2001-11-25T09:21:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![saepiroth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@saepiroth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saepiroth)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2001, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-spider-stop-a-747/95137/21 "2001-11-26T06:20:10Z")
referring to the OP, perhaps you could take down the plane by cutting the pencil-thick line in half and slowly feeding it into both engines? i don’t know if thick spider silk would kill it (it could just be sliced into bits, rather than jamming the engine, perhaps) but it might pull out a turbine blade or two, which would be bad. this, of course, assumes that pencil-thick spider silk would have a higher tensile strength than a nitrogen-frozen chicken. (referencing the recent thread on birds going into engines and “the poultry cannon”.) ---
**Author:** ![Thrasymachus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ce73a5/32.png) [@Thrasymachus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thrasymachus)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2001, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-spider-stop-a-747/95137/22 "2001-11-26T19:48:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by robby \* > > Also, **Thrasymachus** , the maximum extensibility of the capture spiral thread is an incredible **476%**. The weaker radial thread’s average extensibility is 39.4%. > > Source: > [http://www.tiem.utk.edu/~mbeals/spider.html](http://www.tiem.utk.edu/~mbeals/spider.html) \*\* Ahh, thanks. I see from your other link that the '47 has \*\* four engines with 60 000 lbs thrust each!\*\* Breaking the spider-webbing rope estimated at 10 000 lbs would be a cinch for the pilot. I suspect that the someone, somewhere applied a simple scaling factor to a fly stuck in a cob web, and then promulgated this stinker as a “fact”. This kind of thing is why I don’t watch Discovery anymore… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-spider-stop-a-747/95137.md?page=1)