The Federal Aviation Authority has a device for testing the strength of
windshields on airplanes. They point this thing at the windshield of the
aircraft and shoot a dead chicken at about the speed the aircraft normally
flies. If the windshield doesn't break, it's likely to survive a real collision
with a bird during flight.
The British recently built a new locomotive that could pull a train faster
than any before it. They were not sure that its windshield was strong enough so
they borrowed the testing device from the FAA, reset it to approximate the
maximum speed of the locomotive, loaded in the dead chicken, and fired. The bird
went through the windshield, broke the engineer's chair, and made a major dent
in the back wall of the engine cab.
They were quite surprised with this result, so they asked the FAA to check
the test to see if everything was done correctly. The FAA checked everything and
suggested that they might want to repeat the test using a thawed chicken.
