Cockpits are really quite tough.

Post #9,024 by Andrew Grygus 9/13/01 11:52:34 PM Reply	Cockpits are really quite tough. The windshield is considered the most delicate part, so back in the first wave of hijacking I was involved in testing 747 windshields for bullet impact from the inside. We made a glass / plastic laminate windshield. In tests, a NATO rifle round penetrated about half way through. A 38 magnum got through the outer glass ply, and that's about it. Splat! No penetration, no structurally threatening damage from either. None. Later 747s used an all glass laminate from another company because it was cheaper, but I doubt the results would be all that much worse. Something designed to flip off a head-on collision with a duck at 420mph is pretty tough. [link\|http://www.aaxnet.com\|AAx]
Post #9,103 by inthane-chan 9/14/01 12:40:33 PM Reply	Reminds me of a story... I seem to remember the British starting to test airplane windshields, and getting horrible results, until their colleagues gave them a key piece of information about the waterfowl... Anybody else remember this? "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Post #9,118 by wharris2 9/14/01 1:20:39 PM Reply	I remember that one Weren't they using frozen chickens? That no man should scruple, or hesitate a moment to use arms in defense of so valuable a blessing [as freedom], on which all the good and evil of life depends, is clearly my opinion; yet arms ... should be the last resource. - George Washington
Post #9,119 by inthane-chan 9/14/01 1:24:42 PM Reply	Yup. I didn't want to give away the ending, though... "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Post #9,148 by Andrew Grygus 9/14/01 3:04:55 PM Reply	We had "the chicken guy" A chicken farmer in the next valley kept a lot of chickens right around the right weight. When he got word there'd be a chicken shot the next day, he'd pick out a bunch with the right weight, then make sure they ate just the right amount overnight. He'd put twice as many as needed in his truck and run them to the shot site. At least the needed number would have shit themselves down to spec weight. Procedure is to anesthetize the chicken (must be alive at impact) and stuff it into a paper machet projectile. The air canon could get the chicken up to over 400mph at impact. You clean up with a hose and a mop. The U.S. government spent a lot of money trying to develop an artificial chicken, but was not successful. [link\|http://www.aaxnet.com\|AAx]

Welcome to IWETHEY!