Ultimate Nerf gun

NASA's Chicken Gun fires foam rubber chunks at speeds up to 1,500 miles per hour. The device is used to test how well the space shuttle's solid rocket booster can handle the impact of external tank foam pieces that break away during flight. The gun was nicknamed for its usual ammunition:

"In normal use, experts fire chicken carcasses at a test target at varying speeds to simulate a direct bird-strike during flight."

Link (via Science Blog)