Sometimes it DOES take a Rocket Scientist! (True story)Scientists at Rolls Royce built a gun specifically to launch dead chickens at the windshields of airliners and military jets all travelling at maximum velocity. The idea is to simulate the frequent incidents of collisions with airborne fowl to test the strength of the windshields.American engineers heard about the gun and were eager to test it on the windshields of their new high speed trains. Arrangements were made, and a gun was sent to the American engineers.When the gun was fired, the engineers stood shocked as the chickenhurled out of the barrel, crashed into the shatterproof shield, smashed it to smithereens, blasted through the control console, snapped the engineer's back-rest in two and embedded itself in the back wall of the cabin like an arrow shot from a bow..The horrified Yanks sent Rolls Royce the disastrous results of the experiment, along with the designs of the windshield and begged the British scientists for suggestions. You're going to love this......Rolls Royce responded with a one-line memo: "Defrost the chicken!"
bluesbiker In: Birmingham in th
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Up till 96 i worked as an airframe engineer. This story has been floating around for a long time. although most of the versions i've seen say it was british rail and even belgian train makers.
It is true that chickens have been fired at aircraft to test their integrity and possibly even into engines. But i think this is possibly an urban myth. good story though
This was actually tested by Myth Buster on documentry channel, they said it was used by aircraft manufacturers, and yes they too didn't defrost chicken first time around....
haha, my relative was Chief Aerodynamicist for Aerospace til 12 years ago, I'd have loved to have watched him doing this test and cracking up at the results
Great story, but it was doing the rounds when I was a wannabe rocket scientist in the 70s. Still makes me chuckle though, cos sometimes these yarns have an inner truth that rises above the mere facts. Back in those days it was supposed to be Aer Lingus that did the tests!
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