Human cannonball
The human cannonball is a circus attraction, in which a person with the help of a spring or by compressed air from a cannon -like device is shot into the air. Human cannonballs have reached speeds of over 100 km / hr. The person lands on a horizontal net or a leap pad, whose position is determined according to the laws of classical ballistics.
The noise and the smoke of the shot is produced by a pyrotechnic explosion, but which, regardless of the " launch " of the artists takes place and only accentuated the effect.
The largest reach a human cannonball was until March 2011 56.54 meters. It was erected by David Smith senior on 29 May 1998. It is estimated that David Smith has in this income reaches a top speed of 112 km / h. In March 2011, his son David Smith Jr., the record of his father broke with a flight range of over 58 meters.
Such demonstrations are not harmless. So Stephanie Smith missed at the Royal Show in Adelaide on 1 September 2006, the landing pad and this was violated. 25 April 2011 arrived in southern England Detling a stuntman was killed when the safety net failed and he almost unrestrained slamming down with great force on the ground.