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Rolls Royce Tests

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Kira

Kira

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Scientists at Rolls Royce built a gun specifically to launch dead chickens at the windshields of airliners, and military jets, all travelling at maximum velocity.
The idea is to simulate the frequent incidents of collisions with airborne fowl to test the strength of the windshields.

American engineers 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 American engineers.

When the gun was fired, the engineers stood shocked as the chicken hurled out of the barrel, crashed into the shatterproof shield smashing it to smithereens, blasted through the control console, snapped the engineers back rest in two and embedded itself in the back wall of the cabin, like an arrow shot from a bow.

The horrified Yanks sent Rolls Royce the disastrous results of the experiment, along with the designs of the windshield and begged the British scientists for suggestions.

Rolls Royce responded with a one-line memo:

“Defrost the chicken”.
 
Yall need to watch the show" Mythbusters". They heard of this rumor and put it to the test. They built a " chicken gun" and was able to fire a chicken (dead of course)out of the gun at a very high rate of speed. They concluded that a fresh chicken has the same impact as a frozen chicken. Myth busted. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cryin.gif
 
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Yall need to watch the show" Mythbusters". They heard of this rumor and put it to the test. They built a " chicken gun" and was able to fire a chicken (dead of course)out of the gun at a very high rate of speed. They concluded that a fresh chicken has the same impact as a frozen chicken. Myth busted. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cryin.gif

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Yep, I saw that one too, and have been trying ever since to convince my wife that we NEED a chicken gun. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
 
At the beginning of the Mythbusters episode they did mention that the chicken cannon is real, only the stories about "loaning it out" or attempts to launch frozen birds are myths.

Just for the record, it's made in the good ol' USA. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/patriot.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/patriot.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/patriot.gif


PC.
 
Only in America would we want to build something like a chicken gun and be proud of it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/patriot.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/patriot.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/patriot.gif
 
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Only in America would we want to build something like a chicken gun and be proud of it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/patriot.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/patriot.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/patriot.gif

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Dang strait! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif Don’t forget the pumpkin chuckers either.

As a kid some of the kids in the neighborhood made a 5 story Tree House. It was totally waterproof, had A/C power (via 200 ft of power cord) and to top it off we had a giant slingshot capable of launching grapefruits a block & a half on the top floor.

Design was simple: One ten speed intertube stretched out about 10” off the floor. Tied to some rope that was in-turn tied to some apposing branches. We used the top of a tube sock as the pouch that would slide back & fourth along the inter-tube – this allowed the tube to be aimed.

The impact zone was about 10 to 20 feet in diameter depending on the size/weight of the grapefruit.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

What can I say - we were dangerous kids…
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
Mythbusters actually revisted the chicken gun later with a more sophisticated test, involving multiple sheets of glass or something, and determined that a frozen chicken does, in fact, have more penetrating power than a defrosted bird.

But the loaned out chicken gun story is still just a myth.
 
I worked for one of RR's subcontractors for a while and as part of our induction we went to RR for a week long training course on the Trent engines. As part of that course we saw film of the chicken gun in action so I can assure you it exists. As an aside we were told duing the course that UK CAA airworthiness requirements state that in the event of an engine loosing one of its blades the engine cowling has to be strong enough to prevent the blade shooting out of the side and into the passenger cabin. We were also told at the time this made RR engines safer than the US equivelent because the US FAA didn't have this requirement. Any of you aviation enthusiasts out there know if this is true?
 
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<<SNIP>>
As an aside we were told duing the course that UK CAA airworthiness requirements state that in the event of an engine loosing one of its blades the engine cowling has to be strong enough to prevent the blade shooting out of the side and into the passenger cabin. We were also told at the time this made RR engines safer than the US equivelent because the US FAA didn't have this requirement. Any of you aviation enthusiasts out there know if this is true?

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Well, I don’t know what has changed since the United Airlines Flight 232 crashed at Sioux City Iowa. But as I recall the root cause was due to the GE engine failure. When one or more of the compressor blades (Stator vanes sp?) in the engine broke up and came out the side of he engine. These inturn severed hydraulic lines that controlled the aircraft.

I don’t know what the exact wording of rules are governing this, but as I understand the FAA requires redundant systems and as I understand the McDonnell Douglas Aircraft that went down had them. Problem was they where all packed in together making it easy for them all to be taken out simultaneously.

The total failure left the pilot with no means to control the aircraft other than to use the two remaining engines to direct flight. Despite the horrible out come and loss of life the aircrews actions saved many lives that otherwise would have been lost as well.

The following site has the transcript of the flight crew with air traffic controllers.
United Flight 232
 
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