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From: ide!frankl@Sun.COM
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Weird Cannon
Message-ID: <1991Mar20.032551.29519@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 20 Mar 91 03:25:51 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (william.b.thacker)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 45
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: ide!frankl@Sun.COM
         "Larry W. Jewell" <JEWELLLW@VM.CC.PURDUE.EDU> writes:

>     I recently noticed a posting (and you can't make me say
>where) that the U.K. had a "chicken cannon" for testing
>airplanes in regards to "bird-proofing".  The concept is just
>bizarre enough to have a basis in reality. So...

When I was an engineer at Lockheed (Burbank + Rye Canyon), I got to see
the chicken cannon.

>  1. When was it used,

Quite a few years, but I don't know when they started.

>  2. is it still in use,

If Lockheed is still making planes in Burbank (doubtful)

>  3. does anyone have a good description/specs for the thing,

Sorry, no specs.

>  4. how did the RSPCA react?

It does not fire live birds.

>  5. Did/does the U.S. have anything like it.

Lockheed does, at Rye Canyon.

>  6. Have I finally slipped a cog?

Quite possibly.

One story that was told to me was that the L-1011 was chicken tested and the
chicken not only broke the windshield but went rocketing through the body
of the plane.  On investigation, it turned out the chicken had been bought
at a local supermarket and was frozen solid (ie the engineer forgot to
defrost it.)

Adam Frankl
ex-systems engineer, ATF