Can Acoustic Technology Solve Airport Bird Hazards?

Airport bird strikes are a major hidden danger threatening aviation safety. Collisions between birds and aircraft (known as "bird strikes") may lead to engine failures, airframe damage, and even serious consequences such as flight delays and emergency landings. Traditional airport bird strike prevention methods (such as manual bird repellent, bird nets, and chemical bird repellents) have limitations including limited coverage, potential ecological pollution, and poor long-term effectiveness. With the development of acoustic technology, prevention solutions centered on directional/omnidirectional acoustic devices have become a key part of the airport bird strike prevention system due to their environmental protection, high efficiency, and sustainability advantages, providing a feasible way to solve this problem.

I. Core Pain Points of Airport Bird Strikes and Limitations of Traditional Prevention Methods

As open areas, airports are often adjacent to bird habitats such as wetlands, farmlands, and rivers, making them prone to attracting birds for roosting and foraging, thus posing a persistent bird strike threat. The core pain points and limitations of traditional prevention methods are mainly reflected in three aspects:

• Insufficient coverage and flexibility: Manual bird repellent requires staff to patrol continuously, making it difficult to cover the entire airport area (especially remote areas such as the ends of runways and the edges of tarmacs). Fixed facilities like bird nets and scarecrows only work in local areas, and their prevention effects are limited when facing the mobile foraging behavior of birds.
• Ecological and environmental risks: Although chemical bird repellents can repel birds in the short term, they may pollute soil and water sources, damage the ecological environment around the airport (such as insects and small mammals), and there is a potential risk of chemical residues affecting aircraft components, which is not in line with the needs of green airport construction.
• Poor long-term adaptability: The sounds of traditional methods (such as firecrackers and gas cannons) are single and fixed, making birds prone to adaptation. Although they are effective in the short term, their long-term bird repellent effects decline continuously. Frequent replacement of methods increases prevention costs and management difficulties.

II. Core Principles of Acoustic Technology for Airport Bird Strike Prevention

By simulating the sounds of natural predators and specific frequency sound waves, acoustic technology achieves bird repellent by leveraging the physiological and behavioral characteristics of birds. Its core principles are based on two points:

• Simulation of predator sounds to trigger instinctive avoidance: Most birds have fixed natural predators (such as birds of prey and snakes). Acoustic devices can accurately reproduce the typical sounds of these predators (such as the circling calls of eagles and the night calls of owls). Through directional or omnidirectional transmission, birds receive danger signals, trigger instinctive avoidance behaviors, and actively stay away from the airport area. These sounds are analyzed and optimized acoustically to ensure high consistency with natural sounds, avoiding recognition deviations by birds.
• Specific frequency sound waves to cause physical discomfort: The hearing range of birds (100Hz-10kHz) is different from that of humans. Acoustic devices can emit specific frequency sound waves (such as high-frequency sound waves of 2kHz-5kHz) that are sensitive to birds but barely perceptible to humans. These sound waves do not cause permanent harm to birds but can cause physical discomfort (such as restlessness and unease), prompting them to leave the sound wave coverage area. At the same time, the intensity of the sound waves can be accurately controlled within a safe range, complying with animal protection and ecological environmental protection requirements.

III. Core Characteristics of Acoustic Devices Adapted to Airport Scenarios

To meet the bird strike prevention needs of large-scale and complex airport environments, acoustic devices used in airports must have the following targeted characteristics:

• Flexible switching between directional and omnidirectional modes: Supporting directional mode (sound coverage angle of 30°) and omnidirectional mode (360° coverage). The directional mode can be used for precise bird repellent in key areas (such as runways and taxiways) to avoid sound spread affecting residential areas around the airport. The omnidirectional mode can be used for large-scale coverage in open areas such as tarmacs and airport edges to ensure no prevention dead angles. The two modes can be quickly switched through remote control to adapt to the bird activity characteristics at different times.
• Wide frequency range and sound diversity: The devices cover the bird-sensitive frequency band of 250Hz-7kHz and have built-in multiple sound libraries (including more than 20 types of predator sounds and more than 5 types of specific frequency sound waves). They support switching sound types according to seasons and bird species (for example, increasing the sounds of birds of prey for migratory birds in spring and increasing the sounds of snakes for waterbirds in summer), avoiding birds' adaptation and ensuring long-term bird repellent effects.
• High protection and environmental adaptability: The airport environment involves complex conditions such as wind, rain, high temperatures, low temperatures, and sand and dust. Acoustic devices must comply with the IP66 protection rating, with shells that can resist heavy rain washing and sand and dust intrusion. At the same time, they can adapt to a temperature range of -40°C to 60°C, ensuring stable operation without failure shutdown in extreme weather (such as summer exposure and winter ice and snow).
• Remote control and intelligent linkage: Supporting remote operation through the airport monitoring center, including sound type switching, volume adjustment, and working mode setting, without the need for on-site operation by staff, improving management efficiency. At the same time, they can be linked with the airport's bird monitoring systems (such as cameras and radars). When the monitoring system detects bird gatherings, it automatically triggers the operation of acoustic devices, realizing an integrated "monitoring - bird repellent" response and reducing manual intervention.

IV. Specific Application Scenarios and Methods of Acoustic Technology in Airports

The application of acoustic technology covers the entire airport area, and differentiated deployment and usage methods are adopted according to the characteristics of different scenarios:

• Runway and taxiway areas: Directional acoustic devices are deployed, with 1 device installed every 500 meters along both sides of the runway, facing the inner side of the runway to ensure that the sound covers the runway surface and the 50-meter range on both sides. During aircraft takeoff and landing periods, the devices automatically switch to the high-frequency sound wave mode to avoid the sounds of predators affecting the pilots' attention. During the intervals between flights, they switch to the predator sound mode to repel birds staying on the runway, ensuring no birds stay on the runway.
• Tarmac and maintenance areas: Omnidirectional acoustic devices are used, installed on lampposts around the tarmac and the tops of buildings, with a sound coverage radius of 100 meters - 200 meters. They play low-intensity predator sounds in a loop to prevent birds from roosting and nesting around aircraft, and to prevent bird droppings from polluting the aircraft surface or entering the engine interior. At the same time, the device volume is controlled below 60dB, without affecting the normal communication of ground staff.
• Airport edge and surrounding areas: In the edge areas where the airport borders wetlands and farmlands, directional acoustic devices are deployed, with sound directed to the external areas. They simulate the sounds of predators to form a "protective belt" to prevent birds from entering the airport from external habitats. For bird foraging areas such as puddles and grasslands inside the airport, small omnidirectional devices are installed to repel foraging birds through specific frequency sound waves, reducing the attraction of food sources to birds.

V. Practical Effects and Advantages of Acoustic Technology for Airport Bird Strike Prevention

Compared with traditional prevention methods, acoustic technology shows significant advantages in airport bird strike prevention, and its practical application effects are reflected in three aspects:

• Improved prevention efficiency: After an airport adopted acoustic devices, the number of bird stays in the runway area decreased from an average of 15 times per day to less than 2 times per day, and the incidence of bird strike incidents decreased by 70% year-on-year. The coverage area of a single device reaches 10,000 square meters, and the efficiency is 10 times higher than that of manual bird repellent, greatly reducing the workload of staff.
• Ecological and environmental protection: Acoustic technology causes no chemical pollution or physical harm, and has no negative impact on the bird populations and ecological environment around the airport. It has passed the certification of local environmental protection departments and animal protection organizations, complying with the green airport construction standards. At the same time, it avoids the purchase and disposal costs of traditional chemical agents, reducing long-term operating expenses.
• Long-term stability: By regularly updating the sound library and adjusting the working mode according to seasons, the problem of bird adaptation is effectively solved. The devices can be used continuously for more than 2 years, and the bird repellent effect remains stable without frequent replacement of prevention methods. Compared with traditional solutions, the management cost is reduced by 40%.

VI. Collaborative Application of Acoustic Technology with Other Airport Bird Strike Prevention Methods

Acoustic technology is not used in isolation but forms a collaborative system with other methods to further improve the prevention effect:

• Linkage with bird monitoring systems: Combined with the airport's radar monitoring, high-definition cameras, and sound pickup arrays, when bird clusters are detected approaching, the acoustic devices in the corresponding area are automatically triggered to work, and early warning information is sent to the monitoring center at the same time. Staff can remotely adjust the device parameters to achieve "accurate monitoring + timely repellent".
• Integration with habitat management: While reducing bird food sources inside the airport (such as cleaning up puddles and controlling grass height), a "protective belt" is formed around the habitat through acoustic devices. The two measures work together to reduce the motivation of birds to enter the airport and reduce the bird strike risk from the source.
• Complementation with physical facilities: Acoustic devices are deployed around physical facilities such as bird nets and enclosures to repel birds that try to approach the facilities, reducing the possibility of birds colliding with or breaking through the facilities, and forming a dual protection of "physical blocking + acoustic deterrence".

VII. Acoustic Technology is an Effective Solution for Airport Bird Strike Prevention

Overall, by simulating the sounds of predators and specific frequency sound waves and combining with the characteristics of airport scenarios, acoustic technology solves the problems of limited coverage, high ecological risks, and poor long-term adaptability of traditional prevention methods. It can effectively reduce the incidence of airport bird strike incidents and meet the requirements of environmental protection, high efficiency, and sustainability. It is not the "only solution", but as a core part of the airport bird strike prevention system, when used in collaboration with other methods, it can form a comprehensive and three-dimensional prevention effect, providing reliable protection for aviation safety. With the continuous optimization of acoustic technology, its application in airport bird strike prevention will become more widespread, and it will become an important technical support for green airport construction.