40mm Linear Broodje Accelerator

When you work in Holland... and have time on your hands... you need a 40mm LBA. Note the similarity to a good-old-fashioned American spudgun. Growing up around white PVC in the States, the grey PVC and odd connectors make this air cannon look rather sinister. To the Dutch it just looks like a urinal.

Here Nick demonstrates correct posture for firing the LBA.

Here's the shot he hopes to get on the cover of "Guns and Ammo"

The inside of the firing chamber...

Trigger mechanism stolen from a piezoelectric cigarette lighter, mounted via a healthy lump of epoxy putty.

Here's the inside of the firing mechanism.

Here's the propellant: "Haar Spray". Note that we didn't skimp -- we got the "Extra Sterk" haar spray. Good thing too...

Here's the ceremonial first broodje.

You non-Dutch speakers probably don't know what a broodje is. Well, "brood" means bread and "-je" means little, so broodje applies to all the little bready things that Dutch eat for lunch. Yes, technically this is a croissant, but it's also a broodje.

Getting ready to fire for the first time...

Here's the test range.

Note the hangers of Schiphol in the background. The first shot made it probably 10 meters down the little canal (grachtje?). Not too impressive.

Here we let Omar play with the LBA.

This brings back memories of his days in the French Foreign Legion. Note his comfort with firearms and the Uzi-toting stance. By this point we were out of broodjes and had switched to hard boiled eggs. Results were inconclusive; the power depends heavily on how well the individual egg fits in the barrel. Omar's shot went clear over the canal and landed in the parking lot of the hanger, but that was the best we did with eggs.

Here's our project manager John shooting a golf ball.

John was kind enough to provide a handful of golfballs. They fit very well when wrapped in a sheet or two of paper towels. John's shot cleared the entire hanger with room to spare!

Functional consultant Mathieu shooting a potato.

By this point we had a bag of potatos (or as Dan Quayle would say, potatoes). Despite the best efforts, Mathieu failed to bring down any birds.

The gallery of spudders goes on with Steph...

Rosa...

Our concern for the Dutch public has prompted us to provide them with a warning label for their own safety.

Steph posing with a bag of ammunition.

Disaster!

On a cold Amsterdam night, the LBA shattered into quite a few pieces. Here the shrapnel is assembled on a table for inspection. Luckily nobody was injured. Note the water balloon cannon in the background. Rembrandtplein had no warning for what came next.

Fin!