IJMC Chicken Chunks

                       IJMC - Chicken Chunks

Great, I just told someone I am not hungry. I come up with that title and 
I am thinking about food. <sigh> Oh well, maybe I will make some popcorn, 
cause I still think I am not hungry, I am just thinking about food. So, 
some light munching should settle that craving without bloating my belly. 
That is the theory, and as she once said, "Works in theory."        -dave






The 1st part of this is, I suspect, something you may have already seen,
but keep reading....
=================================================

Heeeere kitty kitty.................

Apparently this a true story....

Scientists at NASA have developed a gun, whose purpose it is to launch
dead chickens.  It is used to shoot a dead chicken at the windshields of
airline jets, military jets, and the space shuttle, at that vehicle's
maximum travelling velocity. The idea being, that it will simulate the
frequent incidents of collisions with airborne fowl (bird strike), and
therefore determine if the windshields are strong enough. 

British engineers, upon hearing of the gun, were eager to test the gun out
on the windshield of their new high speed trains. However, upon the firing
of the gun, the engineers watched in shock as the chicken shattered the
windshield, smashed through the control console, snapped the engineer's
backrest in two,and embedded itself in the back wall of the cabin. 

Horrified, the engineers sent NASA the results of the experiment, along
with the designs of the windshield, and asked the NASA scientists for any
suggestions. 

The NASA scientists sent back a one sentence response:
"THAW THE  CHICKEN"
------

One person who used to work for British Aerospace tells a similar story
(which he swears is true) that these machines are actually used to fire
chickens into jet engines to simulate birdstrikes on the compressor
blades.  To cut a long story short, to thaw the chicken, someone left it
in the gun overnight and performed the test in the morning. The results
were somewhat different to expected and close examination of the high
speed video footage showed a very startled looking stray cat clinging to a
half eaten chicken as it exited the gun at MACH 0.7. 


IJMC October 1999 Archives