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Sun 18 Jan, 2004 03:12 pm
Scientists at NASA built a gun specifically to launch dead chickens at
the windshields of airliners, military jets and the space shuttle, all
traveling at maximum velocity. The idea is to simulate the frequent incidents of collisions with airborne fowl to test the strength of the windshields.
British 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 British engineers. When the gun was fired, the
engineers stood shocked . . . . as the chicken was hurled out of the barrel, crashed into the shatterproof shield smashing 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 Brits sent NASA the disastrous results of the experiment,
along with the designs of the windshield and begged the US scientists
for suggestions. You're going to love this......
NASA responded with a one-line memo: "Defrost the chicken."
When I worked for GE Aircraft Engines, they showed us a film of a bird-strike test. Film showed a very-very slow motion of a jet engine going full tilt in a test stand... head on. Slowly tumbling into the field of view came a chicken carcass. Slowly slowly tumbling untill it hit the first fan-blade. Then it dissapeared in a cloud...
I asked what became of bird-strike... the answer: air pollution.
and we eat that stuff....
i believe the "bird gun test" is nothing new. i recall that several years ago some air canada aircraft had encounters with canada geese at the toronto airport. at that time experiments were undertaken
to test the engines and windshields vulnerability to birds. falcons are now used at the airport to keep the bird population under control (there was an article recently in a toronto newspaper about the employment of a falconer). hbg
I also remember seeing a tv program on birds/objects getting sucked into the engines, and they developed a new composite for engines that will not break down from foreign objects.
c.i. : the falcons are there to keep the pigeons in check; not very effective against canada geese i would think . they are actually using dogs to chase the geese. in myrtle beach some of the larger resorts keep black swans on their premises to keep the canada geese away. it sure works, but we also found out that you better not come between a mrs. swan and her young ones ! we were lucky that the swans had been clipped, so couldn't fly but sure gave us a good run for the money ! hbg
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