I may be wrong, do they test the Reindeer on a test-rig with the tail breaking off?
That was the whole basis of the story in the book; Mr Honey has a theory that the tailplane has a fatigue problem and is testing a tailplane; they then discover that one has crashed in Canada and at very close to the number of hours that he has calculated - so he is sent out to investigate.
I've never seen the film, apart form the Rutland Reindeer model, is it any good?