This urban legend is actually partially true. In the legend, NASA scientists teach some foreign country how to test its jet cockpits effectively for bird strikes. They take a cannon and actually launch a dead chicken at the cockpit and record the results.
Bird strikes are a serious problem for aviators.
Pilots have been killed because of bird strikes. Now, here comes the urban legend. They fire a chicken into the cockpit, but, unfortunately, the chicken blasts through the cockpit, through the instrument panel, and into the back of the cockpit. Baffled, the foreign scientists ask the NASA scientists what went wrong. I have yet to find proof that this actually occurred.