Some years ago, some poor army chap in a plastic bubble helicopter collided with rather a large vulture.
Unfortunately it wasn't killed by the impact, but was lodged in the structure of the cockpit. From whence it proceded to peck the chaps legs very aggressively.
Being in a helicopter, he wasn't able to take his feet off the pedals and kick $hit out of his feathered assailant immediately. Or let go of the controls for long enough to find something to clout it with.
Eventually, after several painful minutes, he managed to wedge the pedals for long enough to despatch it with a well aimed kick. By which time the helicopter cockpit was drenched in blood, some of it was the vulture's and some of it the pilots.
Most aircraft are tested for flight deck window impact resistance with a chicken gun. A (dead) hen is fired at the window and the effects noted. Legend has it that one day a manufacturer had no chicken to hand, so sent an apprentice off to the supermarket. He came back with a frozen chicken....
This error was spotted before the gun was fired; otherwise its target would have been totally destroyed. So the chicken was allowed to thaw out; to prevent it making a mess, it was left in the gun tube for a few hours.
When the gun was finally fired, the resulting damage to the windscreen was considerably worse than predicted. Which puzzled the engineers somewhat - but even more puzzling was the ginger coloured material splattered all over the remains of the windscreen.
Then the truth dawned. It seemed that the 'hangar cat', a crotchety old ginger tom, had smelled the thawing chicken and hopped into the gun for a free lunch. Before coming out backwards at 250 knots plus, closely pursued by the remains of a supermarket chicken, then becoming briefly sandwiched between windscreen and chicken.
Probably an urban myth, but one can only wonder at the surprised expression on the cat's face as it hurtled backwards towards the test item!
