My inspiration came at breakfast one day, when CNN switched to a story about the Icelandic volcanic eruption that had grounded air traffic across Europe (due to the abrasive, potentially explosion-causing action that debris has in engines). My immediate thought was, “Someone should fix that.” … I always am asked whether foreign object damage, FOD, is really that major a problem, because most people have seen a few news reports on jets crash-landing after bird strikes or other major accidents, but they don’t know that thousands of these incidents, albeit more minor, happen yearly. Not only by number, but by cost, it clearly is a major problem in aviation. Boeing estimates a minimum yearly cost, barring any disasters like the 1.7 billion dollar Icelandic volcanic eruption, of at least 4 billion dollars a year from FOD.

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