Flying Fruitcake

Photograph courtesy of the Manitou Springs Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau

Back as far as 400 BC, catapults were used to hurl hitch release, sailplaning being another of Meyers’
the vilest of projectiles: rocks, arrows, cow manure, interests.
diseased horse carcasses, barrels of venomous Meyers built this machine large and strong
snakes, wasps’ nests, the severed heads of captured because it has a big job to do. See, fruitcakes are
soldiers. But perhaps the most notorious missile of hard to get rid of. The specific density of fruitcake
all may be … the fruitcake. At least that’s what the is equivalent to mahogany. It’s the one gift that the
citizenry of Manitou Springs, Colo., seems to think. U.S. Postal Service has not found a way to damage
Each January, Manitou Springs residents gather in transit. And you simply cannot flush a fruitcake.
for the city’s annual Fruitcake Toss. The town’s Hence, the M- 63.
best and brightest combine their initiative and “When I started, I essentially began doodling in
tinkering ability to build an array of mechanical AutoCAD,” says Meyers. “I had a vision in my head
and pneumatic-powered contrivances — including for a slingshot, and this design just sort of devel-
air cannons, catapults, and trebuchets — all designed oped as I stared at my computer screen.”
with one thought in mind: to hurl unwanted fruitcakes One year, the M- 63 launched more than 300
out of town. feet. Some of the larger air cannons present at the
Toy designer Dave Meyers is the architect of the Fruitcake Toss hurl even farther. As fruitcake-slinging
M- 63 Fruitcake Remover. It’s an industrial-grade, technology improves, the bar (and the fruitcake)
slingshot-style catapult powered by the ample po- gets ever higher.
tential energy stored in 36 feet of overextended 3- —William Gurstelle
inch surgical rubber tubing. The machine has a yoke

10 feet across, and two large men are required to >>Fruitcake Toss: makezine.com/go/fruitcake cock the spring. The trigger is similar to a sailplane