Many years ago, Keith Henson was going around and talking about
fitting a long tether to a Boeing 747. The idea was to crack the whip
so that end of the whip would be above most of the atmosphere when it
reached its maximum acceleration.


Mike Ackerman wrote in message ...
There was previous discussion here about using a whip to accelerate a
payload. My interest isn't in a space launch, but in replacing "light
gas guns" which are sometimes used in hypersonic research. Has anyone
heard of whips being used to launch objects?

I did a bit of reading on whips, especially on the shortest kind. Snake
whips and quirts are typically loaded with lead shot, so that their mass
gradually decreases from the handle to the tip. When you stop the
handle moving, you'll smoothly accelerate the tip past the speed of
sound. Seems that a simple whip should scale up fairly easily to a
heavy steel cable.

Mike Ackerman