Renewable Revolution

Urban legend from the Internet circa 1998:
Scientists at a British aerospace firm built a gun specifically to
launch dead chickens at the windshields of airliners and military jets. The
idea was to simulate 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 the Brits the disastrous results of the
experiment, along with the designs of the windshield and begged the
British scientists for suggestions.
The British responded with a one-line memo: “Defrost the
chicken.”