In screwing around I was going to try and find a picture of the air ( chicken) gun I remember

Chicken gun.      TR 8703

Well I have a good deal of knowledge on it. As a student going to college in 1975 in Dayton I worked in a student position for University of Dayton Reasearch testing institute. My job was to clean up the mess created. There are a few things you have incorrect and will try to remember the details that I know. 

Size maybe 5 inches inside diameter 30 feet probably. I do know that the fastest they ever got the speed up to was 350 fps (feet per second), about 220 mph while I was there. That even took a huge auxiliary compressor that was installed outside as line pressure wasn't enough to pressurize the air tank enough the get the higher speeds necessary for the tests. The size is 1/2 to 3/4 max lb chicken. The made a balsa wood shell the resembled a shotgun shell casing and put the dead chicken into it. The barrel was slotted at the end and clamped down with hose clamps to reduce the internal size or the bore to stop the balsa wood casing and allow the bird to come out by itself. It was aimed at a transducer plate to record impact pressures.

What every one thinks about the chickens  being frozen is wrong. They thawed out the chickens  before they were stuffed into the wooden shell. I left the position in 1977 so what was done after that I don't know.

They were propelled into a chamber that had a garbage disposal built into the bottom. One of my jobs was to get rid of the remains. This also required disassembly or the garbage disposal.

Mike - USA, December 2009 (sent via e-mail)