Air Cannon

Air cannons are easy to make and surprisingly powerful devices. Whether used to fire potatoes into the sky, trigger avalanches, or fire T-shirts to fans at baseball games, air cannons are amazing devices. Check out the "Construction" and "How it Works" pages for more info!

We were able to get the potatoes to over 600 feet, and shot them at over 250 MPH (110 m/s)!

Air Cannons in Industry

Fireworks Launcher

Engineers at Disney developed a method for launching fireworks into the sky a more environmentally friendly way with compressed air.

The Avalauncher

Air cannons are used to shoot explosives into snowbanks to dislodge snow and prevent future avalanches

Birdstrike Simulators

Birds may be fired into airplanes or high speed trains using air cannons to simulate a birdstrike.

Pipe-Clog Blasters

High pressure air is released into pipe systems to clear the pipes of clogs.

Punkin' Chunkin'

Every year around Halloween there is a contest in Delaware for who can launch a Pumpkin the greatest distance down the a field. Year after year the monstrous air cannons win the contest.

Legalities of Air Cannons

You can read some info about the legal definitions here. To sum it up: legal? not sure

Other Home-made Air Cannon Sites

Many Pneumatic Cannons on SpudFiles

Air Cannons on SuperSoda

YouTube Videos

(Wikipedia Article For More Info )