AEDC Ballistic Range S-3 is a single stage
air gun
An air gun or airgun is a gun that uses energy from compressed air or other gases that are mechanically pressurized and then released to propel and accelerate projectiles, similar to the principle of the primitive blowgun. This is in contr ...
owned by the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...
. The gun is commonly used for
bird strike testing and is often called a
chicken gun.
History
The first Range S-3 was developed by Eugene Sanders at the
Arnold Engineering Development Complex
The Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC), Arnold Engineering Development Center before July 2012, is an Air Force Materiel Command facility under the control of the Air Force Test Center (AFTC). Named for General Henry "Hap" Arnold ...
for use in
aircraft canopy testing. The gun validated many of the canopies designs used on fighter aircraft over the last several decades. The range also played an instrumental role in developing the
ASTM
ASTM International, formerly known as American Society for Testing and Materials, is a standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical international standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems and s ...
F330 specification: ''Standard Test Method for Bird Impact Testing of Aerospace Transparent Enclosures.''
Capabilities
The gun uses a large compressed air reservoir to launch a projectile out of a diameter barrel. Launch speeds of can be attained.
The barrel can also be reconfigured to launch square or rectangle projectiles. The most commonly used projectile is a dead chicken prepared in accordance with the ASTM specification.
See also
*
Arnold Engineering Development Complex
The Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC), Arnold Engineering Development Center before July 2012, is an Air Force Materiel Command facility under the control of the Air Force Test Center (AFTC). Named for General Henry "Hap" Arnold ...
*
Ballistics
Ballistics is the field of mechanics concerned with the launching, flight behaviour and impact effects of projectiles, especially weapon munitions such as bullets, unguided bombs, rockets and the like; the science or art of designing and acceler ...
*
NASA Chicken Gun
References
External links
Arnold Engineering Development Center(official)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aedc Ballistic Range S-3
Air guns of the United States
Aviation safety