Creating a Supersonic Trebuchet
Modern engineers have modified the medieval trebuchet to achieve supersonic projectile speeds. By winding the projectile rope around the arm and adding a gearing system, the launch mechanism required a precise 0.0025‑second release window controlled by a drum latch. Tests with a 40 kg weight and a 4‑gram projectile finally broke the sound barrier, reaching 1,249 km/h.
- ▪The trebuchet was upgraded with a rope‑wound arm and a gearing system to improve energy transfer.
- ▪A latch inside the drum releases the projectile when enough rope unwinds, requiring a 0.0025 second release window.
- ▪Initial tests with a 10 kg weight reached 528 km/h and later 634 km/h, while a 40 kg weight initially fell short of supersonic speed at 1,152 km/h.
- ▪After redesigns, a 40 kg weight and 4 gram projectile achieved 2,342 rpm arm speed and a launch velocity of 1,249 km/h, breaking the sound barrier.
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| Original publisher | Hackaday |
| Canonical URL | https://hackaday.com/2026/08/09/creating-a-supersonic-trebuchet/ |
| Publication time | Mon, 10 Aug 2026 05:00:41 +0000 |
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Creating A Supersonic Trebuchet No comments by: Maya Posch August 9, 2026 Title: Copy Short Link: Copy As awesome as trebuchets are, the fact that medieval engineers didn’t create versions capable of launching supersonic projectiles is a bit of a bummer. Fortunately it’s possible to correct this oversight with modern insights and technologies, as [Tom Stanton] demonstrates in a recent video. While a traditional trebuchet is fairly straightforward, using a heavy weight moving an arm around a pivot that has the projectile attached to the other side, a few tweaks can make it much more lethal. One change is to have the projectile’s rope wound around the arm, forcing an additional pass around the arm to gain velocity.
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