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Okay, we confess. The following story really has absolutely nothing to do with insurance but it’s just one of those tidbits that’s TOOOOO good to let pass. And, in the words of columnist Dave Barry, I swear we’re not making this up.
The way we here it, the Federal Aviation Agency has a specific tool that it uses to test the windshield strength of jet aircraft. For lack of a better way to describe it, it’s kind ofa chicken shooter. By shooting a dead chicken out of a musket like gun, directly at the windshield of a jet, engineers are able to confirm that the windshield would withstand the force of a live bird(s) hitting the windshield during flight. The Plexiglas, plastic, or whatever they use in those things, must be strong enough not to crack or shatter with the force. The last thing a passenger wants to hear over the airliner PA is that the pilot has been knocked unconscious as a result of the airliner impacting a wild turkey or other such beast.
Anyway, the story goes that the train people from England requested a loan of the “chicken shooter”. Seems they wanted to test the strength of the windshield in their new high-speed trains. In the spirit of international cooperation, the chicken shooter was loaned out and the train test was performed.
Alas, things did not go well. The dead chicken was shot at the train’s windshield and … craaaaaccck. It not only broke the windshield, but sliced straight through the engineer’s chair and embedded itself many inches deep into the rear wall.
The Brits were mightily confused. The material strength should have withstood the pressure of the chicken. Where did we go wrong, they queried.
The Americans were quick with their response. “We suggest you repeat the test again allowing time for the chicken to thaw before you use it.”
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