The FAA developed this new device for testing how airplanes withstand

[Jackpine Radical]

collisions with airborne birds. Basically, it launches dead chickens at high velocity toward the cockpits and other potentially vulnerable parts of planes as they sit on the ground. The British borrowed the device with the intention of testing some of their military aircraft. They flew it across the Atlantic, set it up, and fired their first chicken at a fighter cockpit. The dead fowl smashed right through the front of supposedly high-impact canopy and made another big hole in the back part as it exited. They repeated this test on several more aircraft, with pretty much the same results: The planes were not surviving the high-speed collisions with the dead birds. Wondering what was wrong--and wondering why the same thing had not happened when the American planes were tested, the British aeronautical experts brought over an American consultant. The American watched as the British launched yet another dead chicken through one of their airplanes and gave his recommendation:

"First, thaw the chicken."

[The Straight Story]

1. Well, as cold as it is now they might be hitting planes frozen

;)

[Wapsie B]

2. Thank god for American ingenuity!

:rofl:

[rcrush]

3. I didnt know flying chickens were a danger to planes.

[Dennis Donovan]

9. ...and I always thought turkeys could fly:

[Greyhound]

14. ...hitting the ground like bags of wet cement" This is Les Nessman reporting.

[kenny blankenship]

4. And to think: they built jet engines and computers before we did!

[Raskolnik]

12. Q: Why don't the British build computers now?

A: They can't figure a way to make them leak oil.

[conscious evolution]

5. When I was in the aviation industry

I remember reading an article in an industry magazine that said a worker at an Italian aircraft factory was killed in such a test by a still frozen chicken.

[kenny blankenship]

6. I suspect these stories are somewhat ahpockreeful in nature

As in, "...And when the testing device traveled to Warsaw, three engineers of the Polish state aviation bureau electrocuted themselves, as they kept trying screw the frozen fowl into a light socket..."

(We're the world's big brother. Everyone needs an American to show them how to do it.)

[Jackpine Radical]

7. How many Polish engineers does it take

to change a chicken?

[kenny blankenship]

15. To change chicken you must first to apply dialectic:

"Has the chicken gone number ones, or number twos?"

[MajorChode]

8. It's a good story that's been around at least 20 years...

but there's little doubt it's nothing more than urban legend.

http://www.snopes.com/science/cannon.asp

[Jackpine Radical]

17. I was suffering under no delusion that it was true

when I posted it. I'm surprised anybody would take it seriously. It's an old tall tale, brought to mind by the airbus being brought down by geese.

[backscatter712]

10. Didn't the Mythbusters test this myth?

I'm trying to remember - they ended up revisiting it, and found after the revisit that thawed chickens indeed do less damage than frozen birds.

Of course, it was fun watching chickens fired from their air cannon smashing through Cessna windshields...

[TheMightyFavog]

11. The chicken gun!

I want one for myself!

http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2004/02/mythbusters_chicken_gun.html

[Greyhound]

13. LOL! Yes, I remember reading that, too funny.

I thought it was a joke at the time.
:rofl:

[trof]

16. Is that a chicken joke?