Word: fod
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...runway, looking for objects on it--anything from a stray airport truck to the dreaded flocks of birds, which have caused problems for pilots at Charles de Gaulle for years. Marty knew the delicately engineered supersonic engines on the Concorde are particularly vulnerable to what the aviation community calls FOD: foreign-object damage. A piece of stray garbage, or rubber from a blown aircraft tire, passing through a high-speed turbine can cause the engine to fail--or worse. That is why military personnel usually scour runways before jet fighters take off and why commercial pilots check their tires...