# So, what happens to an airplane in a severe hail storm? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 19, 2003, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-to-an-airplane-in-a-severe-hail-storm/196202 "2003-08-19T13:54:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2003, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-to-an-airplane-in-a-severe-hail-storm/196202/1 "2003-08-19T13:54:03Z")
[This.](http://flightlevel.20megsfree.com/) :eek: This EasyJet took off from Zürich two days ago, only to return 10 minutes later looking like this. The hail storm knocked out everything but the engines, or so it seems. No casualties, but this bird is obviously not flying anytime soon. Quite impressive. ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Dreamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Simple\_Dreamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Dreamer)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2003, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-to-an-airplane-in-a-severe-hail-storm/196202/2 "2003-08-19T13:56:23Z")
Yikes! :eek: I’ll be that was a very rough, scary short ride. ---
**Author:** ![SkyBum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@SkyBum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkyBum)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2003, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-to-an-airplane-in-a-severe-hail-storm/196202/3 "2003-08-19T14:03:06Z")
My GOD! Can you imagine what it must have _sounded_ like inside that tin can? ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2003, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-to-an-airplane-in-a-severe-hail-storm/196202/4 "2003-08-19T14:06:48Z")
Correction: it took off from Geneva, not Zürich. I think it must have sounded like a shooting scene in a spaghetti western, SkyBum. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2003, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-to-an-airplane-in-a-severe-hail-storm/196202/5 "2003-08-19T14:12:20Z")
Having been in large hail storms in the midwest I’d say the stones that did that had to be at least [Softball](http://www.chaseday.com/PHOTOSHP/hail/hailhand3.JPG) size. My friends shed at U of Nebraska was pulp after the storm was over. He saved one I think in his freezer for a while. ---
**Author:** ![Blonde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Blonde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blonde)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2003, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-to-an-airplane-in-a-severe-hail-storm/196202/6 "2003-08-19T14:13:31Z")
ooohhh! That picture reminds of what the door of the plane I was on coming back from Chicago looked like after lightning hit us - while we were sitting on the tarmac waiting for takeoff. As in, two minutes after people were one foot from the door, walking into the plane. Lightning hitting a plane = very loud noise indeed! ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2003, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-to-an-airplane-in-a-severe-hail-storm/196202/7 "2003-08-19T15:45:38Z")
This speaks volumes about the design of the engines, that they could continue to function in the face of such disasterous conditions. ---
**Author:** ![SkyBum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@SkyBum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkyBum)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-to-an-airplane-in-a-severe-hail-storm/196202/8 "2003-08-20T00:55:54Z")
I also wondered how the engines were able to survive that hail but on reflection, the engines would seem to be very well suited to withstand hailstones. Think about it. Any hail which enters the intake will have to pass through a fan blade spinning at around 10,000 rpm. Sort of like an industrial blender / slush machine. ---
**Author:** ![Tabithina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f04885/32.png) [@Tabithina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabithina)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-to-an-airplane-in-a-severe-hail-storm/196202/9 "2003-08-20T02:29:28Z")
Another midwestern USA doper concurring with **Phlosphr**. Softball-sized hail, at least. Frankly, I’m amazed that someone thought it would be okay to take off with such an storm in the vicinity. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-to-an-airplane-in-a-severe-hail-storm/196202/10 "2003-08-20T03:01:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SkyBum \* > \*\*I also wondered how the engines were able to survive that hail but on reflection, the engines would seem to be very well suited to withstand hailstones. Think about it. Any hail which enters the intake will have to pass through a fan blade spinning at around 10,000 rpm. Sort of like an industrial blender / slush machine. \*\* Engine manufacturers like GE and Pratt & Whitney torture test their new engine designs by firing frozen turkeys into them while they are running full throttle with a CO[sub]2[/sub] cannon in order to simulate the worst possible birdstrike incident. ---
**Author:** ![Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boo_Boo_Foo)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-to-an-airplane-in-a-severe-hail-storm/196202/11 "2003-08-20T04:16:23Z")
Indeed Q.E.D. - the turbine blades in a modern turbofan jet engine are inarguably the most technologically advanced metallurgy on the planet. Cast from single crystal nickel-titanium alloy, during the manufacturing process, the blades are poured as molten metal into a cast which features a liquid nitrogen worm hole feeding upwards at the bottom of the cast. This causes the molten metal to freeze and crystallise into a perfectly stable molecular structure at the worm hole’s entry point. As the cast cools, the crystal propagates upwards and the entire turbine blade is pure nickel-titanium crystal - which apprently, is many, many times harder and temperature resistant than if the alloy was allowed to cool in a normal cast under typical circumstances. Single Crystal technology apparently creates metals which are tougher and stronger by many orders of magnitude I’m told - and they need to be. The exhaust end of a turbofan jet engine creates 1600C plus temperatures - and typical metals would easily melt under such circumstances. I’m told the single crystal casting technique was invented and perfected for the Pratt and Whitney engines used in the early 1970’s during the first prototype flights of the F15. Very tough metal - incredibly hard and stress resistant. Arguably, the closest that man has come thus far to creating a God-like metal. Certainly, if God is interested in metallurgy, I suspect he’d be impressed by his offspring’s ingenuity on this one. ---
**Author:** ![Blonde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Blonde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blonde)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-to-an-airplane-in-a-severe-hail-storm/196202/12 "2003-08-20T04:55:18Z")
**Q.E.D.** – I contribute all of those frozen turkeys - after my attempt to cook Thanksgiving dinner. 😉 Sorry. Y’all carry on with the metal/jet engine discussion. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-to-an-airplane-in-a-severe-hail-storm/196202/13 "2003-08-20T05:21:27Z")
I wasn’t aware that metal could be crystalline. Is this used anywhere else? ---
**Author:** ![Trigonal\_Planar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Trigonal\_Planar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trigonal_Planar)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-to-an-airplane-in-a-severe-hail-storm/196202/14 "2003-08-20T05:28:55Z")
Meh, I’ve had acne flare-ups worse than that. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2003, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-to-an-airplane-in-a-severe-hail-storm/196202/15 "2003-08-21T00:22:15Z")
> [@](#): > > Single Crystal technology apparently creates metals which are tougher and stronger by many orders of magnitude I’m told - and they need to be. The exhaust end of a turbofan jet engine creates 1600C plus temperatures - and typical metals would easily melt under such circumstances. I wasn’t aware of that. Out of curiousity do you know if there are any other names for the process, or trade names or anything? It sounds like it could be used to make a virtualy unbreakable knife blade which is something I have been looking for. I’d imagine it would be very expensive, but do you know if they’re making stuff like that? ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2003, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-to-an-airplane-in-a-severe-hail-storm/196202/16 "2003-08-21T05:13:04Z")
Well, if it hadn’t been an _Easy_Jet, it might not have gotten stoned so fast! Geez, you guys sure missed that one. OK, ok. Ow! That iceball hurts!