How high are fireworks?

"Blueskies" wrote in
:


"Reid & Julie Baldwin" wrote in message
...
As I watched some amateur fireworks displays this weekend, I thought
about what they would look like from the air. Before I fly in the
vicinity of a fireworks display, however, it would be nice to know
how high those flaming projectiles go.


The amateur stuff pops at 100' or so. They had a really big maybe 16"
shell that they sent up in Boston; launched to 1200' then burst. Most
pop by 500' or so...



I watched last year's fireworks atop the Stratosphere Tower in Las
Vegas. The indoor observation deck is 860' AGL and the fireworks were
launched from the top of the parking garage, perhaps 60' AGL. Most of the
rockets exploded pretty much at eye level. The ones exploding above were
more spectacular than the ones which detonated below.

For those not familiar with the tower, the glass on the indoor
observation deck slants outwards as it rises, so you can look straight
down. It does muffle a lot of the sound.

The outdoor observation deck was closed during the show for safety.
Several cardboard shards from the exploding rockets bounced off the windows
in front of me.

--
Marty Shapiro
Silicon Rallye Inc.

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