FIRE! DESTRUCTION! MAYHEM!

That's the theme of the premier episode of a new TV series called
"In The Name Of Science." See a video clip of T-Wrecks launching a piano!
Quicktime .mov format (1.5 mb) || Mpeg 4 .mp4 format (1.5 MB)
In this show a hand-picked team of experts, including a structural engineer, expert mechanics and welders, and the world's leading authority on Catapult construction endeavor to design, build and shoot the world's most powerful trebuchet. In this photo, the three-foot tall model is sitting on top of the 40-foot tall version, waiting to be SMASHED By its railroad wheels!
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DVD

Projectiles will include such things as pianos, art sculptures, pianos, a small car, exploding pianos, and pianos.
That means it's going to be a big machine, and it has to be strong. That means a LOT of steel!
The counterweight is a 9 TON concrete block. The frame is 40 feet tall, 40 feet long, and 20 feet wide. Fortunately our expert welders are capable of welding any thickness of steel for any purpose, and our project falls somewhere within that category.

There are a LOT of engineering challenges in designing and building such a beast, especially considering we only have one week and a handful of workers. The structural engineer, welders, and designer don't always see eye-to-eye on the issues, and there just isn't enough time to argue about it! This leads to a couple of spectacular failures mixed in with stellar results too.

But mostly, we're a happy and productive group who wants to get the job done and do some HURLING! Hard work, long days and creative thinking make it all happen.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DVD

The machine is huge, and so powerful it's capable of lifting it's entire 50,000 pound frame off the ground in one amazing mis-fire. It takes a 12 ton crane just to cock the counterweight into place. But if you want to send a piano into the air and downrange about 500 feet, with a hang-time of about 7 seconds, that's what it takes!

Here's a full-sized piano, on fire and loaded with cans of gasoline, being flung into the sky! The following images show a piano that's not on fire, and a six-fot diameter steel cage filled with an assortment of flammable and explosive things, then hurled as far as it will go. Of course, the steel cage leaks, and FIRE gets sprayed in places we didn't expect!
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DVD

See a video clip of T-Wrecks launching a piano!
Quicktime .mov format (1.5 mb) || Mpeg 4 .mp4 format (1.5 MB)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE DVD

CatapultKits.com

CatapultKits.com, FEATURING the Floating Arm Trebuchet (F.A.T.) used as the model for T-wrecks!