Human cannonball

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Human cannonball Stephanie Smith
A safety net catches the human cannonball "Captain Munoz"
Historic cannon wagon of the "Ringling Brothers" and the "Barnum & Bailey Circus". With this, between 1930 and 1960 "human cannon balls" were shot over the circus tent or the audience. (Circus Museum in the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida)

The human cannonball is a circus attraction in which a person is shot through the air with the help of a spring or compressed air from a cannon-like device. Human cannonballs have reached speeds of over 100 km / h. The person lands on a horizontal net or jumping pad , the position of which is determined according to the laws of ballistics .

The noise and the smoke of the shot are generated by a pyrotechnic explosion, which takes place independently of the artist's “shooting” and only underlines the effect.

History and records

The first human cannonball was Rosa Richter "Zazel" in 1877 when she was shot at the Royal Aquarium in Westminster, London, over a distance of approximately 6.1 meters.

The maximum range of a human cannonball was 56.54 meters up to March 2011. It was set up by David Smith Sr. on May 29, 1998 . It is estimated that David Smith reached a top speed of 112 km / h on this shot. On March 10, 2011, his son David Smith Jr. his father's record with a flight distance of 59.05 meters at a demonstration in Milan . He broke this record again on March 13, 2018 as part of a marketing campaign for the computer game Sea of ​​Thieves at Raymond James Stadium in Florida, in which he was able to cover more than 60 meters in the air. On July 8, 2013, according to the Guinness Book of Records, David Smith Jr. At 26 m, the highest altitude in a flight as a human cannonball when shot down in California City , California, USA.

Accidents

Such demonstrations are not without danger. Stephanie Smith missed the landing cushion at the Royal Show in Adelaide on September 1, 2006 and was injured. On April 25, 2011, stuntman Matthew Cranch was killed in Detling in the south of England when the safety net failed and he hit the ground with unrestrained force.

Human cannonball in popular culture

The human cannonball is used in numerous films. In the comedy Micmacs - We Own Paris! the device is used in the event of a break-in.

The musician Loudon Wainwright III set a monument to the record holder of 1940, Emanuel Zacchini Sr. (53 meters, 87 km / h) with his song Human Cannonball .

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  1. ^ First human cannonball. In: Guinness Book of Records . Retrieved March 10, 2015 .
  2. ↑ Man fired from cannon at Raymond James Stadium. In: Tampa Bay Times . 2018, accessed on March 17, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Human cannonball - greatest height achieved. In: Guinness Book of Records . 2013, accessed on March 10, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Stuntman had a fatal accident while flying out of a cannon. In: Spiegel-Online . 2011, accessed July 29, 2019 .

Web links

Commons : Human cannonball  - collection of images, videos and audio files