NASA Chicken Gun
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The (misnamed) NASA Chicken Gun is one of several large diameter compressed air cannon used by the Federal Aviation Administration and US Air Force to test the strength of Aircraft Windshields and the safety of Jet engines. A common danger to aircraft is that they collide with birds in flight. Most parts of an aircraft are strong enough to resist such a bird strike. Jet engines may sustain serious damage, however, and cockpit windows are necessarily made of transparent materials and are a vulnerable spot. Testing to see what the risks are is required.
The Chicken Gun is designed to simulate high speed bird impacts. It is named after its unusual projectile: a whole dead standard sized chicken, as would be used for cooking. This has been found to accurately simulate a fairly large bird. The test target is fixed in place on a test stand, and the cannon is used to fire the chicken into the engine, windshield, or other test structure.
There is a longstanding urban legend about the gun being loaned to some other agency, who fired frozen chickens instead of thawed chickens. Research indicates that this is apparently a myth.
Guns are operated by the FAA and the US Air Force rather than NASA, as is commonly believed.
[edit] Pop Culture
On Mythbusters a chicken gun was used in various experiments. The experiments conducted used both frozen and thawed chickens to test the cockpit window of a private aircraft.
[edit] External references:
Arnold Air Force Base Test Department
(PDF) Arnold AFB test facilities capabilities, including range S3, Bird Impact Range
