The great birdstrike canon story.

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Globalti

Legendary Member
Did anybody hear this story?

British Aerospace invented a canon, which fired chickens at aircraft windscreens to test their resistance to birdstrike. Visiting engineers from Boeing saw this and thought it would be a great idea. BA gave them the drawings and Boeing built one of their own.

On the great day, the top Boeing management lined up to watch the first test. The canon was fired and they all watched in horror as the chicken crashed straight through the windscreen, removed the dummy pilot's head, destroyed the headrest and smashed through the bulkhead. In shock they sent a fax to BA asking what could have gone wrong.

The next morning came the reply by fax with three simple words:

"Defrost the chicken".
 
i have heard this story... wasn't sure if it was true or not, but wouldn't surprise me.

i am now reminded of the Far Side cartoon featuring a bird reporter on tv, behind is the blazing wreckage of an 'plane and the reporter is saying "there is no news of the identity of the duck involved"
 

col

Legendary Member
I think i saw something like this on mythbusters,a series trying to dispell certain myths,by using experiments to copy situations,and show if they can happen or not.
 

pzycoman

New Member
Location
Huffing a kitten
Few factual errors with this. BAE have a cannon which they use to fire birds (not chickens) - birds that they actually rear up themselfs to fit the specification, and those birds are freshly killed for the firing. USAF have one that fires chickens (frozen), but thats used to fire at fully powered aircraft engines (Although they did fire a frozen chicken once at a F16 cockpit at ~400mph). They figure that firing a frozen chicken is more realistic because the bird would tense up before hitting the aircraft.
 

col

Legendary Member
pzycoman said:
Few factual errors with this. BAE have a cannon which they use to fire birds (not chickens) - birds that they actually rear up themselfs to fit the specification, and those birds are freshly killed for the firing. USAF have one that fires chickens (frozen), but thats used to fire at fully powered aircraft engines (Although they did fire a frozen chicken once at a F16 cockpit at ~400mph). They figure that firing a frozen chicken is more realistic because the bird would tense up before hitting the aircraft.


I think if i was about to collide with a plane,i would tense up a bit too:biggrin:
 

Pete

Guest
Surely the original story goes back for yonks - I think I heard it in the 1970s!

Maybe not so fanciful as all that. Another story I remember from years ago, told of people on the ground being 'bombed' by large blocks of ice falling from aircraft - on account of them 'voiding' the toilets in mid-flight :tongue::tongue::ohmy: (at that altitude the water would instantly freeze of course). If the ice can hit and injure someone on the ground, it could also hit another aircraft. Anyway, I believe the practice is now discontinued.
 

classic33

Leg End Member
US device used testing the APT prior to its rollout in the 70s. Because of it intended speed damage from birdstrikes could not be ruled out.
BR contacted the American company who supplied the cannon, because they were worried about the high failure! rate of the leading window on the train.
They were in turn asked if they had defrosted the chickens prior to use.
 
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