A review on collisions between drones and aerostructures – Experimental studies, numerical simulation, and regulation

The increasing presence of drones seen on the battlefields in modern conflicts poses new threats to manned military aircraft or rotorcraft. In order to assess this potential threat, this manuscript first summarizes all confirmed and suspected collisions between drones and aerostructures and the damage resulting from these collisions. Furthermore, this manuscript reviews experimental and numerical investigations on collision of drones with aerostructures. Additionally, some light is shed onto current regulation for drone operations intended to avoid collisions between drones and aircraft. Whilst these regulatory measures can prevent commercial aircraft to collide with drones, the authors believe that there is an inherent threat for civil and military rotorcraft due to their structural design and the fact that it is not possible to completely separate the airspace between drone operations and rotorcraft operations, in particular in the context of rescue missions in an urban or hostile environment. Furthermore, the stealth capability of 5th generation fighters may be compromised by damage suffered from collision with drones.