[2660] in Humor
Dead Chicken Launch
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Richard S Tibbetts)
Thu Feb 11 12:53:00 1999
To: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Thu, 11 Feb 1999 12:50:20 EST
From: Richard S Tibbetts <tibbetts@MIT.EDU>
Scientists at NASA developed a gun specifically to launch dead
chickens at the windshields of airliners, military jets, and the
space shuttle. The idea was to simulate the frequent incidents of
collisions with airborne fowl and to test the strength of the
windshields in collisions at maximum velocity.
British engineers heard about the gun and were eager to test it on
the windshields of their new high speed trains. Appropriate
intergovernmental arrangements were made and the gun was shipped to
England. But when the gun was fired, the engineers stood shocked as
the chicken hurtled out of the barrel, crashed into the
"shatterproof" shield, smashed it to smithereens, crashed through the
control console, snapped the engineers backrest in two and embedded
itself in the back wall of the cabin.
Horrified Britons sent NASA the disastrous results of the experiment,
along with the designs of the windshield, and asked the U.S.
scientists for suggestions. NASA's response was just one sentence:
"Thaw the chicken."
