On Sat, 22 Oct 2011 05:00:56 +0000, Peter Wyld wrote:

Wilbur and Orville used a weight dropping down a tower to accelerate
their flyer from rest in nil wind.

Does anybody know when they stopped using that gravity catapult?

Wasn't a bathtub full of something dropped from the roof intended to
launch the Colditz Cock from the top of the castle ?

Yep - the bathtub was full of rocks and concrete but I don't recall
whether it was simply to be dropped off the rook or down the clock-tower.
I have dim recollections that it was to be the latter, which would make
sense: recall that the castle was floodlit to prevent escapes and that
the launch track was placed to be in shadow, so the bathtub would almost
have to be dropped inside the castle to keep it out of sight before the
launch.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
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