So you're France, it's the early 1970s, and you want to build a supersonic transport. Trouble is, nobody knows what, exactly, will happen to people on the ground when this thing goes roaring by. So what do you do? Well, sometimes ya gotta crack some eggs to make an omlet.

I like this part the best:

[The sonic boom test] was characterised by 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.