Punkin' Chunkin'

[Bob Thompson]

I am trying to decide if this is total fiction or partial fiction.

Gordon, If you are referring to rail guns, they run the gamut from simplistic models that will not dent your garage door to the really serious guys who are looking for a way to destroy satellites.
You can find plans for a rudimentary rail gun on any number of nerdsites .
Dangerous Nerds are everywhere these days.

[Bob Thompson]

Sorry, Bob, not to be clear enough.

Our first machiine, Chucky 2 (Chucky 1 was a prototype) was a straightforward roman torsion catapult (onager, mangonel, whatever) which uses a rope bundle to store energy and release it quickly. We competed first in 2001 and threw 380 feet or so. Over the next 7 years we tweaked and improved it until it seemed maxed out at 3,091 feet.
see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afjde...eature=related

We then built a new one from scratch, Chucky 3, using what we had learned and a new, compound design. We hope this one will beat all the air cannons (27 or so clones of one another that think they cannot be surpassed by a mechanical team with insane dedication- they are wrong) and possibly eevn throw 1 mile.
see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEcY3...eature=related

So that's where we're coming from. Hope this explains what I neglected to lay out earlier in the thread.

For the record, not total or even partial fiction.

Dan

Dan, I just had a brain fade, it happens sometimes when it gets hot from too much thinking.
I even have a weird idea for you guys but I'll email it via your site.