General Information

Serial #

N/A

Part Number

11

Total Parts

14

AKA

burst diaphragms

Patents

N/A

General Description

Clear synthetic [mylar ?] diaphragms secured between unbleached cardboard forms.

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

52.5 cm

Width

35.4 cm

Height

10.0 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Aviation

Category

Research

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

NRC

Country

Canada

State/Province

Ontario

City

Ottawa

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Ontario

Period

Used between 1968- 2009.

Canada

Operated as it was by a permanent staff working for a government organisation, the 10-inch gun was used to test a variety of aircraft types produced by many companies based in foreign countries. Foreign companies came to Uplands because they knew the staff and equipment could provide them with the information they needed. As a result, NRC played a crucial role in making flying safer. It is very likely, if not almost certain, that the flight impact simulators located in Ottawa were the inspiration for the Chicken Cannon irregularly put to use on the CBC’s weekly television show Royal Canadian Air Farce. The Chicken Cannon made its appearance on Friday, March 4th, 1994. It was apparently last fired on Thursday, December 18th or Friday, December 19th, 2008, at the taping of the show’s very popular New Year’s special. Throughout the years, the Chicken Cannon was loaded and fired by one of the show’s most popular character, Colonel “Teresa” Stacey, played by Don Ferguson. As well as a sizeable number of rubber chickens, the Chicken Cannon fired a bewildering variety of items, primarily food, at photos of individuals, either Canadian or foreign, who were deemed to be the most annoying at the time. Viewers proposed many targets. [Ref. 1]

Function

Unknown

Technical

"The cardboard was placed on either side of the stack of 20 x 50 inch rectangular Mylar sheets to protect the outer ones from scratches when the stack was cut to the pattern on a vertical bandsaw. The stack could be 20 or more sheets thick and 3 10-inch gun diaphragms could be cut out from this sheet size." [R. Gould, Ref. 4] Diaphragms could be stacked/layered within simulator, and ruptured following firing of gun.

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

"0.005" " printed by hand in black marker on one tab of one diaphragm stack.

Missing

Each diaphragm complete in itself.

Finish

Clear synthetic [mylar ?] diaphragms secured between unbleached cardboard forms.

Decoration

N/A