News-Record.com

... as I was in the previous post, here's something else I need to get me one of: the Ultimate Chicken-Chunk-Firin' Nerf® gun.

ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. (AFPN) -- Experts here are launching rectangular pieces of foam, traveling up to 1,500 mph, at the space shuttle's solid rocket booster to help NASA officials make sure the vehicle is ready to return to flight.

Arnold Engineering Development Center engineers and test operators in the ballistic impact range, affectionately known as the chicken gun, are launching hundreds of block-shaped projectiles. This will simulate pieces of external tank foam breaking away during flight and striking various parts of the space shuttle, such as the solid rocket booster.

The range got its nickname because, in normal use, experts fire chicken carcasses at a test target at varying speeds to simulate a direct bird-strike during flight.

Why fire 10-gauge slugs when you can fire chicken carcasses? That's what I always say.

UPDATE: And one more, courtesy of Mr. Sun!: the catapult watch. Maybe I should've been a physicist; for some reason, ballistics just rocks my world.