Concorde Tested First on Chickens | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-06.23.25

Airborne-NextGen-06.24.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.25.25

Airborne-AffordableFlyers-06.26.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.27.25

Tue, Jan 14, 2003

Concorde Tested First on Chickens

They're Just Like People, Only Cheaper

A recent Dominic Casciani story for the BBC explained that, "Papers newly released by the British Government reveal how scientists tested Concorde's sonic boom for damage against humans - by firing it at French chickens in a barn."

In 1969, everybody knew the Concorde was coming; but no one knew just how its sonic boom would affect the people below the commercial supersonic transport's flight path, especially as it would be repeated, hitting the same people, day after day.

Britain has a rule similar to the US's Freedom of Information Act, called the "30-year Rule," and under it, reporters found out how those who run things determined that the Concorde would be safe for the psyches of the ground-bound.

Engineers really didn't know how humans would react to repeated exposure, so, lacking proper human subjects to experiment on, they used nature's closest relative: the chicken. OK -- so it's not the closest thing in Nature to a human, but chickens were plentiful, available, and (if all didn't go well) relatively cheap.

The first tests were made using authentic sonic-boom sounds on eggs. The chickens that hatched from those eggs were examined for any ill effects of either physical or nervous nature. After the chicks hatched, their reactions, both auditory and affective, were noted, when subjected to additional sonic boom stimulation. No differences between the previously-subjected, egg-tested chicks and the control group were discerned.

A different test, on live broiler chickens, was set up. The engineers were to test, on 2800 living birds, the effect of the big boom. The scientists didn't know, going in, whether the chickens would panic; of if they might ignore the noise. They didn't know if it would affect their weight -- or it it might provoke them, lemming-like, into some societally-destructive behavior.

A few blasts of the boom-horn settled that hash. The chickens' reaction, according to the report, was the, "...sudden and complete immobility of all the chickens. There was a simultaneous cessation of all the cheeping for a maximum of 40 seconds - whereupon normal activity resumed. ...There was no evidence of collective hysteria crowding or crushing due to fright - even during the critical period when the feathers are grown."

They tried and they tried, but, "Repetition of the booms had no economic effect on the industrial raising of chickens subjected to the booms compared with those which were not."

Since chickens, presumably, are (at least to our rulers) just like people, Casciani reported, "The scientists told the officials all their studies suggested the 'probability of immediate direct injury to persons exposed to sonic boom is essentially zero.'"

One wonders why those results didn't yield more-tolerant supersonic flight rules...

FMI: www.concordesst.com

Advertisement

More News

TikToker Arrested After Landing His C182 in Antarctica

19-Year-Old Pilot Was Attempting to Fly Solo to All Seven Continents On his journey to become the first pilot to land solo on all seven continents, 19-year-old Ethan Guo has hit a >[...]

Classic Aero-TV: Versatile AND Practical - The All-Seeing Aeroprakt A-22 LSA

From 2017 (YouTube Edition): A Quality LSA For Well Under $100k… Aeroprakt unveiled its new LSA at the Deland Sport Aviation Showcase in November. Dennis Long, U.S. Importer>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (06.27.25): Hazardous Weather Information

Hazardous Weather Information Summary of significant meteorological information (SIGMET/WS), convective significant meteorological information (convective SIGMET/WST), urgent pilot>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (06.27.25)

Aero Linx: Historic Aircraft Association (HAA) The Historic Aircraft Association (HAA) was founded in 1979 with the aim of furthering the safe flying of historic aircraft in the UK>[...]

Aero-News: Quote of the Day (06.27.25)

"We would like to remember Liam not just for the way he left this world, but for how he lived in it... Liam was fearless, not necessarily because he wasn't afraid but because he re>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC