Chicken cannon

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A chicken cannon is a large diameter compressed air cannon that is used to test the strength and safety of (vehicle and aircraft ) components by shooting objects at these components. A common hazard from airplanes is that they collide with birds in flight. Most parts of an airplane are tough enough to withstand a bird strike . However, aircraft engines can be seriously damaged. The cockpit windows are necessarily made of transparent, thin material and are therefore a vulnerable point. Landing gear , wing and tail edges are also at risk. In addition to bird strikes, the impact of large hailstones is also tested, as well as concrete and other parts that can be thrown from a runway .

development

The chicken cannon was designed to simulate bird strikes at high speed. It was named after the unusual ammunition: A " Canadian standard wild goose " is required for an aviation approval, which is quite large and heavy, and at the same time has very stable bones. It was found that a large, lifelike bird can be adequately reproduced in flight with this. The test target remains fixed in place and the cannon is used to shoot the goose into the turbine, windshield, or other test structure.

The cannon is operated by a compressed air tank. The company used in the 1970s, Goodyear Aerospace in Litchfield Park ( United States ) a cannon with a ceramic membrane to complete the compressed air tank from the barrel of the gun. To fire the cannon, a magnetically controlled needle was used which pierced the membrane (then it bursts into splinters), causing the compressed air to shoot the goose (in its container, a cylindrical ice cream box) through the tube. A metal ring at the mouth held the box open, but let the goose through. Slow motion cameras detected the goose's impact on the windshield in the test environment. These cameras were triggered at the same time as the membrane ruptured.

The aim is no longer to shoot real geese, but rather round gelatine samples.

use

The chicken cannon was first used in the mid 1950s by the de Havilland Aircraft Company in Hertford , UK . It was fired with an accurate countdown from a log cabin in the woods near the company's headquarters. The chickens were obtained from a local farm on the edge of the forest and killed shortly before being fired. After firing, the aircraft turbines were removed and examined for damage. High-speed cameras recorded the entire impact process.

Chicken cannons also found early use at the Royal Aeronautical (Aircraft) Establishment (RAE) in Farnborough (Great Britain) in 1961.

The United States Air Force hired AEDC Ballistic Range S-3 to test aircraft canopies. The chicken cannon was later used to test certain aircraft parts, such as the leading edges of wings.

Pop Culture

A modern legend has existed for a long time , according to which the cannon was once loaned to another authority which fired frozen chickens instead of thawed chickens.

A chicken cannon was used for various experiments on the MythBusters show . Both frozen and thawed chickens were shot to test the cockpit windows of a private plane.

In the 1970s, tests of the windshields of British bullet trains used the Farnborough chicken gun and expertise, not NASA, to refute the myth that NASA recommended that the British defrost the chickens beforehand.

In the CBC comedy series Royal Canadian Air Farce , a chicken cannon is often used to shoot rubber chickens and other projectiles at pictures of people in the headlines.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ DLR report on bird strikes (PDF; 1.1 MB), accessed April 3, 2013
  2. ↑ It's a Bird, It's a Plane ... It's a Bird Striking a Plane . National Research Council of Canada . January 2007. Retrieved September 14, 2009.
  3. ↑ Chicken Cannon . Snopes . Retrieved June 16, 2008.