Chicken Gun

True story, as heard on the "Late Late Show with Tom Snyder" 3/3/97
Scientists at NASA have developed a gun, whose purpose it is to
launchdead chickens. It is used to shoot a dead chicken at the windshields ofairline jets, military jets, and the space shuttle, at that vehicle'smaximum traveling velocity. The idea being, that it will simulate
thefrequent incidents of collisions with airborne fowl, and therefore,
determine if the windshields are strong enough to endure high-speed
birdstrikes.

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 into 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."

Jim Craig