Good Aviation Ideas
I got an inspiration for this topic from a post in the Rumors and News forum.
I read a good article the other day about ground personnel accidents that happen when ground personnel back into or walk into rotating propellers, nearly always resulting in deaths. It's believed that most of these accidents occur because the ground personnel momentarily forget the danger of the propellers, or while distracted (with ear protectors on), fail to see the propellers because it's hard to see them when they're spinning, especially at night.
The author liked the old military idea of painting a vertical line on the side of the fuselage adjacent to the propeller, so that ground personnel would be visually reminded of the propeller arc by seeing the bold vertical line. I think this is good, but might not be as effective at night where a lot of the accidents occur.
My idea is to use a powerful strobe light aimed directly at the propeller. Many aircraft now have lights embedded in the side of the fuselage that point toward and illuminate the leading of the wing. I think this idea can be taken a step further with embedded strobe lights aimed at the propellers.
You know how strobes have the ability to visually "freeze" the motion of a moving object especially a spinning one, and each flash "freeze" shows the object in a different position from the last flash "freeze". This property of strobe lights has the ability to "show" the spinning propeller when otherwise it's hard to see.
Powerful strobes could work in both daylight and darkness (especially in darkness), and the strobes could be on only when the aircraft is on the ground in a terminal area with the engines running (where ground personnel are). I think this would help ground personnel "see" the propeller much better, and the flashing strobes would always be a reminder of the danger of the propellers.
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Safe flying to you...