Engineers Fire Chickens Into Jet Engines. On Purpose.

Before a new jet engine is allowed to fly, engineers spin it up to full takeoff power and fire a dead chicken into it with a compressed-air cannon. For the biggest engines the bird weighs about 8 lb (3.65 kg). The engine may destroy itself, but it can't catch fire, nothing can burst out through the casing, and it has to shut down safely. Then comes a whole flock at once, and the engine has to keep running for about twenty minutes. And the birds must not be frozen. Sources: US FAA engine certification rules (14 CFR 33.76, bird ingestion); "Chicken gun" (Wikipedia); Snopes on the frozen-chicken legend. #aviation #engineering #science