🔫🍗 TIL About The Chicken Gun 🔫 🍗

He's something funny in a dark kind of way I learnt about today.

Apparently there is a thing called a chicken gun aka flight impact simulator.

Essentially, it is a large-diameter, compressed-air gun that is used to fire bird carcasses, like ducks and chickens, at aircraft componentsv like engines and air frames. Now, this may sound bizarre at first, but it's actually acrucial part of ensuring aircraft safety, as they are used to simulate how aircraft components would fair in high-speed bird strikes, a common occurrence during flight.

Here's one in action against an aircraft engine

And here's another short with some more footage

https://youtube.com/shorts/qwiBi48Pu_w?si=nvU_XjzJxx-pg03x

The first recorded chicken gun was built in 1942 by the US Civil Aeronautics and could bird carcasses at up to 400 miles per hour. The gun turned out to be quite important as it revealed severe weaknesses of the passenger airplanes back then, like the Douglas DC-3 which could be penetrated completely by a 4-pound bird traveling at just 75 miles per hour (121 km/h).

Next time you're flying, remember that countless chickens have helped make your journey safer :) 🍗

Here's a link to wikipedia if you'd like to read more on the subject!

Posted Using InLeo Alpha