General Information

Serial #

N/A

Part Number

9

Total Parts

14

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

Three dense pale blue foam (Styrofoam ?) rings.

Dimensions

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

Length

N/A

Width

N/A

Height

7.8 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

24.4 cm

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

Specific: To fill interior space between sabot wall and .13 bird bag.

Technical

Prepared bird body ejected from flight impact simulators must be housed in a sabot prior to testing. The sabot is smaller than the simulator's cannon bore diameter: sabot and it's contents must be held in a precise position during testing. This styrofoam liner is made in 3 sections, and surrounds the prepared "bird" inside the sabot. For the vast majority of shots a flexible aluminium honeycomb material was used as the liner. Styrofoam was used as the liner only for low speed shots with no camera coverage as the Styrofoam could break up at the Stripper and follow the bird to the target and obscure the view of the impact. [Ref. 5]

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

Mfr's markings which appear at regular, repeating intervals are largely illegible, because of central cut-outs.

Missing

None.

Finish

Three dense pale blue foam (Styrofoam ?) rings.

Decoration

N/A