Sorry to take so long to reply, but it's been a busy weekend...
> Mythbusters did the chicken and aircraft thing recently. Found out it
> makes essentially no difference whether the chickens are frozen or
> thawed... They all penetrate the average private aircraft windscreen.
> Moral: avoid bird strikes.
A good moral, but I would like to know more. When I worked for the airplane
factory, one of my jobs was to shoot high speed film of bird strike tests,
so I've seen quite a few. (to anticipate your questions, I don't remember
the camera, but we went through a 400' pancake in about ten seconds)
If they were testing against a piston single, that's probably true, as those
are generally not, at least in the seventies and eighties, certified for
that, due to their speed. We tested corporate jets. The chickens were
thawed, and the FAA expected them to not penetrate the windshield, which
they didn't. (To anticipate another question, they were whole chickens, not
like you get at the grocery. We had a farmer who raised them, and killed and
froze them whole, feathers and all.)
The subject of thawed versus frozen came up when we leased the chicken gun
to another manufacturer. The somewhat inexperienced engineers didn't thaw
the chickens, and they did go right through the windshields, like a
cannonball. As this was not even close to their calculations, they called us
in panic. Someone asked, half in jest, "You do thaw them, don't you..."
And despite what certain other manufacturers said, we did not test the
trailing edges!
Oh, and for certain of our more rugged readers, I can't get you a chicken
gun to complete your collection. There's not an SUV big enough for one,
anyway!!!
Bill Pearce
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