Scientists at NASA have developed a
gun built specifically to launch dead chickens at the
windshields of airliners, military jets and the space
shuttle, all travelling at maximum velocity.
The idea is to simulate the frequent incidents of collisions
with airborne fowl to test the strength of the windshields.
British safety engineers heard about the gun and were eager
to test it on the windshields of their new high speed
trains. Arrangements were made, but when the gun fired, the
engineers stood shocked as the chicken hurled out of the
barrel, crashed into the shatterproof windshield and smashed
it to smithereens, crashed through the console control,
snapped the engineer's backrest in two and embedded itself
in the back wall of the cabin.
Horrified, the safety engineers sent NASA the disastrous
results of the experiment, along with the designs of the
windshield, and begged the US scientists for suggestions.
NASA's response was just one sentence:
"Defrost the chicken"