Scientists at NASA built a gun specifically to launch dead
chickens at the windshields of airliners, military jets and the space shuttle,
all traveling at maximum velocity. The idea is to simulate the frequent
incidents of collisions with airborne fowl to test the strength of
windshields.
British 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 British
engineers.
When the gun was fired, the engineers stood shocked as the
chicken hurled out of the barrel, crashed into the shatterproof shield,
smashed it to smithereens, blasted through the control console, snapped the
engineer's backrest in two and embedded itself in the back wall of the cabin,
like an arrow shot from a bow.
The horrified Britons sent NASA the disastrous results of
the experiment, along with the designs of the windshield, and begged the U.S.
scientists for suggestions.
NASA responded with a one-line memo:
"Thaw the chicken."
DPetty 
