Thaw the Chicken: Unexamined Assumptions

The Federal Aviation Administration once developed a cannon-like device to test the strength of windshields of airplanes. They actually shot a dead chicken (I’m serious) into the windshield at the approximate speed of a flying plane to simulate a bird hitting a plane while in flight. Well, a British locomotive company heard about this test. 

So they asked the FAA if they could borrow the device. They had just developed a high-speed train, and they wanted to likewise test their windshield. They loaded the bird up and shot it at the locomotive at its approximate running speed. The bird…