True Story
Marilyn June 17th, 2006
Ballistic Chickens
The US Federal Aviation Administration has a unique device for testing the strength of windscreens on aeroplanes. The device is a gun that launches a dead chicken at a plane’s windshield at the speed the plane flies. The theory is that if it doesn’t crack from the carcass impact it will survive a real collision with a bird during flight.
It seems the British were very interested in this and wanted to test a windscreen on a new high speed train they were developing. They borrowed the FAA’s chicken launcher, loaded the chicken and fired. The ballistic chicken shattered the windscreen, went through the engineer’s chair, broke an instrument panel and embedded itself in the back wall of the engine cab.
The British were stunned and asked the FAA to recheck the test to see if everything was done correctly. The FAA reviewed the test thoroughly and had only one recommendation: “Defrost the chicken.”
Reprinted from ‘Feathers’ a California Poultry Industry publication.