Seems like such an advance in this ancient technology. It would be really cool to see it applied in interesting ways.
I really wonder just how effective this could be as a defense system .. the mind wanders with every update Tom makes .. I imagine an aiming/targetting system would make this an effective, easily replenished, low-resource weapon system for some applications. Attacking feral animals, perhaps?
How could an auto-loader work for this .. I'm sure there's a means.
Another thing that I keep thinking about, is whether this would be an effective way to launch seed-bombs, or deal with avalanche conditions on a mountain without requiring fire-arms training.
A truly fascinating bit of engineering. I hope to see it evolve into an effective delivery mechanism.
No it wouldn't... the projectile is still launched by the same angular motion of an arm and a sling basket the power for the rotation just comes from a different source.
How do you responsibly test something like this? The payload isn't going to follow a ballistic trajectory, it's going to follow an aerodynamic one. You'd probably have to design something special to load into it to aim the damned thing.
Which is a road trip to some place very empty in something like a 180º arc. Maybe 225º.
His trebuchet launched a 4 gram projectile at 776 miles per hour.
That's obviously extremely lightweight for trebuchet payload, but for comparison, his projectile is approximately 62 grains so approximately twice as heavy as 30 grain high speed 22LR rounds. And approximately 1.5 times as heavy as 40 grain subsonic rounds.
It would be interesting to scale this design up. Not necessarily in terms of velocity--supersonic velocity for a large trebuchet munition isn't necessarily desirable. What I mean specifically is scaling up the multi-revolution arm and sling release technology to be capable of launching a ~1 ton projectile.
Could it be done reliably with traditional construction techniques (wood, treenails, lashings, minimal metal hardware)?
AFAIK these are innovations that were not explored historically. It would be interesting to see if they would have been viable. It seems like you could probably achieve a lot more downrange energy using the same amount of materials this way.
What's extraordinary about this? You can get any amount of energy from gravity and transferring it to a small object doesn't sound like an especially complex feat. It's one of those influencer videos in which someone devotes a disproportionate amount of effort to accomplish something pointless- Mr. Beast does the exact same without any pretense of showing something useful.
Ummmm. In 2007, near a certain defense contractor, we demonstrated a 319'-wire trebuchet mounted horizontally but slight vertical a-skewed for distance/aiming.
Used a gnarly large helical gear but with integral diminishing ratio.
Gravity-powered in same way but with a 20-meter-ish tower. (Cheaper than a standard 800'-tall trebuchet.)
At release time, achieved 10 G-force (payload goal), it's velocity speed was audibly a speed of sound (arguably higher, math says Mach 2.7).
That was our lunchtime project, all started from several stage bets, a napkin diagram, and different loser(s) pay for weekly food deliveries.
Even demonstrated to some brass from an unrelated project.
Fun-time.
Oh, yes, lest I forget, bunker-required for safety (where exactly would you stand?).
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[ 4.9 ms ] story [ 56.1 ms ] threadI really wonder just how effective this could be as a defense system .. the mind wanders with every update Tom makes .. I imagine an aiming/targetting system would make this an effective, easily replenished, low-resource weapon system for some applications. Attacking feral animals, perhaps?
How could an auto-loader work for this .. I'm sure there's a means.
Another thing that I keep thinking about, is whether this would be an effective way to launch seed-bombs, or deal with avalanche conditions on a mountain without requiring fire-arms training.
A truly fascinating bit of engineering. I hope to see it evolve into an effective delivery mechanism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballista
Which is a road trip to some place very empty in something like a 180º arc. Maybe 225º.
I should build something this weekend…
That's obviously extremely lightweight for trebuchet payload, but for comparison, his projectile is approximately 62 grains so approximately twice as heavy as 30 grain high speed 22LR rounds. And approximately 1.5 times as heavy as 40 grain subsonic rounds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co57SfcT-h0
Could it be done reliably with traditional construction techniques (wood, treenails, lashings, minimal metal hardware)?
AFAIK these are innovations that were not explored historically. It would be interesting to see if they would have been viable. It seems like you could probably achieve a lot more downrange energy using the same amount of materials this way.
How dare someone build something entertaining and tell about it.
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records/hall-of-fame/fe...
Used a gnarly large helical gear but with integral diminishing ratio.
Gravity-powered in same way but with a 20-meter-ish tower. (Cheaper than a standard 800'-tall trebuchet.)
At release time, achieved 10 G-force (payload goal), it's velocity speed was audibly a speed of sound (arguably higher, math says Mach 2.7).
That was our lunchtime project, all started from several stage bets, a napkin diagram, and different loser(s) pay for weekly food deliveries.
Even demonstrated to some brass from an unrelated project.
Fun-time.
Oh, yes, lest I forget, bunker-required for safety (where exactly would you stand?).
As tall as the Golden Gate Bridge?