Sometimes it DOES take a Rocket Scientist!!
This is a true story.....
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 shot out of the barrel, crashed into the shatterproof shield, smashed it to smithereens, blasted through the control console, snapped the engineer's 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:
You're going to love this.....
"Defrost the :censored: chicken."
:laughabovepost:
I can't believe I hadn't heard that before!
Though it does remind me of a story I was told by maintenance crew at a facility which shall remain nameless:
The story goes that the US jet engine manufactures were wrestleing with the problem of ice accumulating on the tip of the rotating cone on the front of the fan disc. This can often be seen in clips with distinctive spiral paint to make it obvious that the engine is spinning.
Anyway, if ice builds up and then breaks off it can potentially do damage to the fan blades behind it, not desirable. So the US firms were spending large sums on trying to divert hot air right to the tip, special shapes, fancy inlet aero etc etc
Over here Rolls Royce, allegedly, had a rather bright apprentice who simply suggested; why not make the tip out of rubber?
I have no idea if that's true, but like to think it is :D
Skyline2uk
Whilst I don't doubt it's got origins in truth I've seen it attributed to British Rail with the HST and BAe/Aerospstiale with Concorde too!
Snopes (https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/catapoultry/) agrees, sadly!
Too outrageous not to be true!! :)
It has truth in its origins which were for early fast jets in the UK and from German tests late 1944 on their early jets.
It has a variation about the Americans using Turkeys rather than chickens and the chief of the RAF technical defense staff sending a rye message about "if you think you will encounter a bird of that size at 10,000 ft can I suggest you have a different magnitude of a problem".
Maybe they were Kentucky Fly Chickens.......
:laughabovepost:
Rolls Royce use them for engine fod tests
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nAc7wab-l4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nAc7wab-l4)