Anyway, in other aeronautical news, ( not actually to do with space travel as it is extremely unlikely that you would encounter flying chickens in Space, but the story amused me so I would like to share it with you), I read a post from author Brian Morgan the other day.
It seems that the technicians at Rolls-Royce have invented a chicken gun, which fires dead chickens at aircraft windshields and jet engine intakes,( no, not their cars), in order to simulate high-velocity bird strikes. Technicians in America, on hearing about this, contacted Rolls-Royce and asked them if they could send them one so they could fire chickens at the windscreens of their new high-speed trains.
Once the gun arrived and was set up they gleefully prepared for the first test. Their grins quickly turned to expressions of horror as the first chicken they fired shattered the shatterproof windscreen, tore through the control console, smashed the Engineer's chair backrest into two halves, then lodged itself halfway through the back wall of the Engineer's cabin.
Suspending any further experiments, the shocked and horrified Technicians immediately sent the notes and video of the disastrous experiment to the Technicians at Rolls-Royce and asked them to provide them with possible solutions to the problem. After reviewing the American's notes and video, the Rolls-Royce technicians replied with a simple one-sentence e-mail.
"DE-FROST THE CHICKEN BEFORE FIRING IT!
