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Scientists at Air New Zealand built a gun specifically to launch dead chickens


Buckshot Bear

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Scientists at Air New Zealand built a gun specifically to launch dead chickens at the windshields of airliners travelling at maximum velocity. The idea is to simulate the frequent incidents of collisions with airborne fowl to test the strength of the windshields.
Australian engineers heard about the gun and were eager to test it on the windshields of their new Qantas A380 aircraft. Arrangements were made, and a gun was sent to the Australian engineers.
When the gun was fired, the engineers stood shocked as the chicken hurled out of the barrel, crashed into the shatterproof shield, smashed 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 Aussies sent Air New Zealand the disastrous results of the experiment, along with the designs of the windshield and begged the Kiwi scientists for suggestions.......
Air New Zealand responded with a one-line memo: "Defrost the chicken......"

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I have heard this numerous times. First it was our Air Force, then the English, then Nazi Germany, now Australia. 
 

You’d think someone would have told somebody. :lol:

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I did bird strike testing on props in Wichita at my previous job.  We had a 40 foot potato gun.  Pushed a 4 lb chicken to the same muzzle velocity as a 45acp.  We'd rain chicken all over the parking lot.  

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1 hour ago, Buckshot Bear said:

A grebe did this......imagine a goose!

 

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There was a turbo prop commuter plane taking off from Aberdeen Airport about 2001, I think, it hit a flock of Canadian and snow geese, if I recall correctly approximately 21 impacts.  One of the birds dislodged the windshield wiped, it flew back into the prop.  The prop hit it into the cabin, where the windshield wiper found its new home in someone 's leg.

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11 minutes ago, El CupAJoe said:

There was a turbo prop commuter plane taking off from Aberdeen Airport about 2001, I think, it hit a flock of Canadian and snow geese, if I recall correctly approximately 21 impacts.  One of the birds dislodged the windshield wiped, it flew back into the prop.  The prop hit it into the cabin, where the windshield wiper found its new home in someone 's leg.

When I was stationed at MCAS New River, in Jacksonville N.C. our Base Commander was flying a Huey that took a hit from a seagull. Clean through the windscreen, right to the face. Broke his neck. Only the fast thinking of his Crew Chief saved his life.

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Was flying out of Harrisburg, PA one morning on a commuter jet. During climb out there was the loudest bang followed by a screaming metal-on-metal sound that slowly changed pitch.

 

The crew went into an emergency action drill and we came back to safely land.

 

An hour later we were standing in the gate area when the pilot came in to share photos he’d just received from maintenance.  A goose had gone through the right engine and destroyed it.

 

Credit to the engineers and crew that there was no “Miracle on the Susquehanna” that day.

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We have done it for years. I worked in the aerospace industry for 40 years and saw this test done on the B1A, B1B, Space Shuttle, B2 and many fighters. Nothing new here. 

 

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On a lesser scale I have tested motorcycle helmet face shields with June Bugs, Bees, Hornets, Cicadas, Grasshoppers and other assorted insects and objects. :D

 

 

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Years ago when I worked for an architect in Fort Worth we did work at General Dynamics. It is now Lockheed Martin. They had a test area for the canopies and a special cannon if you will to shoot chickens at them. I believe it used something like compressed air to propel them.

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I watched a documentary on the design of the Boeing 777. They showed a chicken gun being used to test the new engines for resistance to bird strikes. The slow motion footage of the chicken entering the engine was ........ something.

 

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On 11/15/2021 at 10:38 PM, El CupAJoe said:

I did bird strike testing on props in Wichita at my previous job.  We had a 40 foot potato gun.  Pushed a 4 lb chicken to the same muzzle velocity as a 45acp.  We'd rain chicken all over the parking lot.  

I bet they sell them to Banquet for TV dinners.

JHC :lol:

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On 11/16/2021 at 9:55 AM, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

On a lesser scale I have tested motorcycle helmet face shields with June Bugs, Bees, Hornets, Cicadas, Grasshoppers and other assorted insects and objects. :D

 

 

 

I still have my visor that has a large chip in it right in line with my right eye. Watched that rock fall off the dump truck bounce twice and then clear my windscreen by 1\2 inch before impacting my helmet visor. Felt like it took 10 minutes to happen.

 

Have a buddy that loved skid lids till a June bug hit his exposed forehead. Didn't knock him off the bike but came close. Took him to the nearest ER to get patched up. Doc told him that it punched a hole all the way to his skull. From then on he wore a better helmet. 

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I don't remember which one it was, but one of the NASA pilots was flying into St. Louis in a T-38.  He took a goose hit that smashed the windscreen and...took his head off! :o Might have been Ted Freeman.  CRS.  You also might recall that Capt. Sully had bird impacts to both engines of his airliner, that resulted in his skilled landing in the East (?) River!  The formula is 1/2mv^2.  Which is why we are so upset over the Russians blowing up one of their own dead satellites with their ASAT!  That debris could destroy anything it hits, and the impact energy would depend on the mass of the particle and the combined velocities of the particle and the object struck! The International Space Station is travelling about 17,500 mph. If a one gram particle going in the opposite direction at the same velocity were to impact the station, the combined velocities would be 35,000 mph! I'll leave it to you to figure out the impact energy!  The effect if it hit a pressurized module would be disastrous, which is why they had the astronaut/cosmonaut crews take cover in their respective spacecraft.  Of course if the debris hit one of them...:o :o :o 

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On 11/15/2021 at 6:49 PM, Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485 said:

Heard that many years ago, but it was the Americans that made the gun.

 

I heard this when I was building DC10's and MD 80's..........

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