Photo of the Reflections of Earth Air Launch cannon

[Roxas]

That cannon looks like t could knock out the ISS.

 

[hpyhnt 1000]

Wow, quite a bit of history for WDWMagic! Interesting look there. To think I was only 5 when this site was launched... :lol:

Thanks for the pic, Steve. Neat looking piece of technology there. :wave:

 

[icandrawem2]

Thats great...reminds me of an air cannon I built once to launch t-shirts at our university football games...of course this baby looks alot more...what do you say....serious? :lol:

 

[tecowdw]

It's defintiely more visible than its original location in the UK pavilion. Back then you really had to know where to look to see it, and even then you only saw the last foot or two of the barrel.

-Rob

When did it start coming from America rather than UK?

 

[EPCOT Explorer]

When did it start coming from America rather than UK?

After all the AFL's were refitted when one blew up in 2005.

 

[Rob562]

After all the AFL's were refitted when one blew up in 2005.

It was one of the pyros that went off while it was still in the tube. And it was one of the two shots located on the Inferno Barge.

The Inferno Barge was out of commission for quite a while, as it needed extensive repairs. (I think they ended up just replacing all of the gas and electric lines on it to be safe) The incident happened in Sept 2005, and the barge didn't return until early Feb 2006.

During that time, the UK's launcher was also taken out of commission, and instead an additional comet was shot from the seawall launcher closest to the Rose & Crown. But it was the same pyro that is shot off from the seawall during the Celebration segment, so the effect wasn't the same. (It was really very poor, actually)

(And for those who were wondering, the UK ALF launcher was located in the same row of buildings as the Tea Caddy, but at the opposite end of that L-shaped row of buildings.)

I think even after the inferno barge returned, it was a while before the air-launchers returned to the show. (There's a video on YouTube posted March '07 labeled as the "new" air-launched comet) They moved the dual launcher off of the inferno barge and onto the boat slip/dock in the middle of the Lagoon (so that if another incident happened, it wouldn't cause as much damage) , and they relocated the comet launcher to the American Gardens theater. (The Lagoon-based launchers may have been re-introduced first, while still using the seawall-based comet)

The move for the comet was because they decided that they wanted to eliminate launching the comet over a Guest area. Because of the UK's launcher position (which was chosen because it gave the best arc over the water), the live pyro was shot off over the Promenade walkway and the Rose & Crown. Every night CMs would have to close the Promenade to foot traffic for a couple minutes right before the show until after the comet had successfully fired. The new location eliminates that.

-Rob

 

[marni1971]

^ Interesting, Rob. :wave:

 

[WDW Monorail]

Actually, I was thinking it looked like something the MythBusters would build. :lol:

-Rob

Mythbusters built a similar device in order to fire a cannon ball at the hull of a ship in order to test whether or not splintering can kill a person (or pigs in their case). At one point, they fired a cannon ball all the way through 4 dead pigs.

Essentially, the entire system is comparable to a giant p e e shooter, as it was described by Ben Schwegler. Ben was one of the lead engineers in the pneumatic launch project.

DL has similar cannons to launch their comets for Remember... I have a picture of a set of 2 of them but I can't find it at this time.

The system on the center slip is essentially the same.

EDIT
Here are 2 of the DL cannons:

Here is the cannon on the center slip, taken by a WDWMagic member:

It is visible on the far right of the photo.