Frozen turkeys (was Re: OT: A&P (was Re: ...))

[Laura Brody]

On Sat, 23 Oct 2004 16:50:05 -0500, Mike Schwartz-PC Support & Services <mschw at athenet.net> wrote:

>> > Oh, what was it they were testing by shooting frozen turkeys out of a
>> > canon.  I want to say something on cars...windshields maybe?  I know I
>> saw
>> > a documentary where they were doing this, seriously.
>>
>> Are you, perhaps, talking about the TLC series "MythBusters"?
>
> 	Actually, the "chicken cannon" is real.  In order to certify the
> windshields of most jets, even the smaller biz jets, they have to shoot the
> chickens at them at speeds of several hundred miles per hour in a lab.  So,
> someone devised a way to shoot the chickens out of a howitzer at the
> windshields on a test bed in the lab.
>
> 	The joke was that when they sent instructions to a different test
> lab, explaining how to setup the test equipment, the other lab kept smashing
> the same windshields that were passing the tests at the first lab.
>
> 	Then somebody finally realized what was going wrong, and sent the
> message, "No, no!  You have to THAW the chickens first!!!"

The myth is that the Americans were using frozen chickens
in their tests. The tests ALWAYS shattered the windshields.
They asked the British what they were doing wrong. The Brits
gave them the above answer.

The nutjobs[1] on the show "Mythbusters" created a pressurized
cannon and aimed it at the aircraft. They used fresh and
frozen chickens - they found no detectable difference in
the amount of damage the chickens did to the windshield.
Both chickens totally shattered it, then they figured out
that they screwed-up the test because the small aircraft
that they were using *was NOT rated to withstand bird strikes*.
Oops.


[1] I saw that these two guys are nutjobs because they regularly
lose eyebrows in the explosions that they create. They get
fire marshalls (who standby with a fully staffed fire engine)
_very_ nervous. For the _really_ dangerous tests, they use
a 180-pound test dummy dubbed "Buster". Buster has been
literally launched through the air, dropped 8 stories in
an elevator (with a giant spring under his butt so that he
can "jump" just before impact), toasted in a fire created
with gasoline in a toilet & a dropped match and given a
standing "ride" in a top-loading washing machine.

-- 
Laura Brody, Publisher of the filePro Developer's Journal
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