Testing Windshields
Scientists built a gun specifically to launch dead chickens at the windshields of airliners,
military jets, and the space shuttle, all traveling at maximum velocity. The idea was to simulate the frequent incidents of collisions with airborne fowl to test the strength of the windshields.
Engineers from another country heard about the gun and were eager to test it on the windshields of their new high-speed trains. Arrangements were made, and a gun was sent to the other country’s 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 backrest in two, and embedded itself in the back wall of the cabin, like an
arrow shot from a bow.
The horrified engineers sent the guns developers the disastrous results of the experiment, along with the designs of the windshield, and asked for suggestions. They received a one-line reply: “Thaw the chicken.”