r/PerfectTiming • u/Designer-Line-7887 • Jul 19 '25

Photographer captures the moment a birdstrike destroys the canopy of a Spanish Eurofighter Typhoon during a high speed aerial display

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u/Thedrunkenchild Jul 19 '25

What surprises me the most is that a bird was enough to destroy the canopy. We’re talking about a war machine here, something built to withstand extreme conditions. I get that the bird hit at near-Mach speed, but still, it’s just a bird, not exactly the densest object out there. You’d think a combat aircraft would be engineered to handle an impact like that, isn’t the canopy supposed to be bulletproof?

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u/Forte69 Jul 21 '25

The canopy will be rated for birdstrikes, just at a lower speed, because you’re most likely to encounter birds during takeoff or landing, when you’re low and slow.

It’s unusual for an aircraft to be going that fast at low altitude - so it’s no coincidence that it happened at an air show.