--- title: Creating A Supersonic Trebuchet | daily.dev description: Tom Stanton built a modern trebuchet capable of launching projectiles at supersonic speeds. Key modifications over a traditional trebuchet include winding the... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/creating-a-supersonic-trebuchet-gui209trr twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Creating A Supersonic Trebuchet | daily.dev og:description: Tom Stanton built a modern trebuchet capable of launching projectiles at supersonic speeds. Key modifications over a traditional trebuchet include winding the... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/creating-a-supersonic-trebuchet-gui209trr og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/GuI209trr.png og:image:alt: Creating A Supersonic Trebuchet og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Creating A Supersonic Trebuchet **[Hackaday](https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday)** · 2 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Tom Stanton built a modern trebuchet capable of launching projectiles at supersonic speeds. Key modifications over a traditional trebuchet include winding the projectile rope around the arm for extra velocity and adding a gearing system for energy efficiency. A precise 0.0025-second release window is managed by a latch inside the drum. With a 10 kg weight, early tests hit 528 km/h, later improved to 634 km/h after aerodynamic redesigns. Scaling to 40 kg, the first attempt reached 1,152 km/h — just shy of the 1,235 km/h sound barrier. After further redesigns and switching to a 4-gram projectile, the arm spun at 2,342 rpm and launched the projectile at 1,249 km/h, breaking the sound barrier with an audible snap. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How fast did the supersonic trebuchet's projectile travel when it broke the sound barrier? The projectile reached 346.4 meters per second, or 1,249 km/h, using a 40 kg drop weight and a 4 gram projectile, producing an audible snap as it broke the sound barrier. This followed earlier tests where a 40 kg weight only managed 1,152 km/h at 39% system efficiency before component failures forced further redesigns. _daily.dev surfaces hands-on engineering builds like this supersonic trebuchet project for curious makers._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Tom Stanton's supersonic trebuchet breaks sound barrier with gravity alone](https://daily.dev/posts/tom-stanton-s-supersonic-trebuchet-breaks-sound-barrier-with-gravity-alone-z3lyhhq3b) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Tube Launch Boosts Rocket’s Performance](https://daily.dev/posts/tube-launch-boosts-rocket-s-performance-mmdnzcn3u) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Whip-Cracking Machine Reliably Breaks The Sound Barrier](https://daily.dev/posts/whip-cracking-machine-reliably-breaks-the-sound-barrier-avfoc9evl) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Venus Aerospace raises $91M for its detonation engine](https://daily.dev/posts/venus-aerospace-raises-91m-for-its-detonation-engine-nhtdelxx2) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Flying at the edge of the stratosphere](https://daily.dev/posts/flying-at-the-edge-of-the-stratosphere-8kgcgvfie) · MIT News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#physics](https://daily.dev/tags/physics), [#mechanical-engineering](https://daily.dev/tags/mechanical-engineering) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/creating-a-supersonic-trebuchet-gui209trr) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Creating A Supersonic Trebuchet","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/creating-a-supersonic-trebuchet-gui209trr","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/creating-a-supersonic-trebuchet-gui209trr"},"datePublished":"2026-08-10T05:11:41.001Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T06:29:29.649Z","description":"Tom Stanton built a modern trebuchet capable of launching projectiles at supersonic speeds. 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