Chicken Launchers of Death are finally here

http://www.snopes.com/science/cannon.htm

Sometimes it DOES take a Rocket Scientist (true story)

Scientists at NASA built a gun specifically to launch evil, mutated chickens of death at the windshields of airliners, military jets and the space shuttle, all traveling at maximum velocity. The idea is to simulate the frequent of collisions with airborne fowl to test the strength of the windshields.
British engineers heard about the gun and were eager test it on the windshields of their new high-speed trains. Arrangements were made, and a gun was sent to the British engineers. When the gun was fired, the stood shocked as the chicken hurled out of the barrel, crashed into the shatterproof shield, smashed it to smithereens, blasted through the control, 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 Brits sent NASA the disastrous results of the experiment, along with the designs of the windshield and begged the US scientists for suggestions.

NASA responded with a one-line memo:
"Thaw the Chicken"

 

lol, that's so stupid. Why don't they just mount the bird on a pole in front of the vehicle, and let it go? What a waste of money.

 

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do they have to use chickens?

 

Well, yeah. They are trying to simulate BIRD STRIKES, after all.

I guess they *could* calculate the average density and weight of a bird, then produce a mathematical model describing how relatively soft flesh and hard bone flow under high speed impact, use the computer model to design a test target made of multiple densities of foam, plastic, and silicone rubber to approximate a real bird, but that would cost $$$, take years of work to develop, and still never be as accurate as testing with a REAL bird carcass.

So they go to the local grocery store and get a few whole chickens. Maybe this is where McNuggets come from--floor sweepings from a NASA windtunnel test?

 

I wonder if the govt. ever thought bout using them as actual offensive weapons. I'm thinkin who could fight with half-frozen chickens raining down from above? No one, that's who!

 

Switch over to dropping ham, and you have a new secret weapon against Islamic terrorist cells!

 

What do you mean, like styrofoam?

 

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Yeah, I can see that. I would imagine the ice would spread with the innards of the insulation exposed, that would be quite the mess.

 

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I had heard that the suspected cause of the Columbia foam separation was "popcorning", a problem that has plagued the external tank (ET) insulation jacket since the beginning of the program.

If there is even a slight gap between a section of foam and the outside of the metal LH2/LOX tank, the air in this space becomes supercooled and liquefies, pooling between the foam and tank. As the propellant drains from the tank during launch, the metal surface of the tank warms, and the liquefied air flashes back into a gas, which creates a pocket of high pressure under the foam, which literally blows the foam right off the tank with a loud "pop".

Achieving 100% adhesion between the foam and metal tank has proven to be nearly impossible, despite years of effort by NASA and Lockheed, the ET contractor.

 

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All I can figure is that it was a combination of pride and stubbornness on the part of NASA management. To have to request help from outside the agency could be interpreted as a NASA failure, and permitting such a request from a low-level engineer to go ahead without the backing of the entire bureaucracy would threaten the entire top-heavy NASA culture.

It is a sad commentary that NASA's internal culture has devolved from "Failure is Not an Option" to "Don't Rock the Boat, and Cover Your Ass!"

 

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