Tom Stanton's supersonic trebuchet breaks sound barrier with gravity alone
Engineer Tom Stanton successfully built a gravity-powered trebuchet that launched a projectile past the speed of sound. By utilizing a specialized pulley system to overcome traditional mechanical limitations, he achieved a feat previously thought impossible for gravity-based machines.
Why it matters
This project demonstrates innovative mechanical engineering solutions to fundamental physics constraints, highlighting how creative design can push the boundaries of traditional technology.
0 shares Facebook Twitter Pinterest Reddit WhatsApp Telegram Bluesky Threads Baidu OpenAI icon ChatGPT Perplexity Google Preferred Source Tom Stanton has spent years chasing a number that gravity itself seemed to forbid. On a quiet field somewhere in the UK, a 40-kilogram mass dropped a short distance, spun a carbon-fiber arm past 2,300 revolutions per minute, and sent a 4-gram projectile into the air at 776 miles per hour. That is nine miles per hour past the speed of sound. For the first time, a purely gravity-powered trebuchet crossed the barrier.
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