[blackdog]

I think the whole thing got started from former navy guys. They fired all kinds of stuff off the deck with those steam operated catapults that fire off fighters from the deck. It wasn't enough to just toss broken gear overboard. Launching old copiers, computer monitors, engines, etc..... from the flight deck is a lot more fun.

Ten year old boys make a potato gun from old soup cans and duct tape. Twenty year old boys are no different. They just have better resources to work with. By the time you're fifty, we're talking serious childhood munitions!

[Poohbah]

I think the whole thing got started from former navy guys. They fired all kinds of stuff off the deck with those steam operated catapults that fire off fighters from the deck. It wasn't enough to just toss broken gear overboard. Launching old copiers, computer monitors, engines, etc..... from the flight deck is a lot more fun.

HMS Ark Royal (the one that was paid off in the 1970s) launched the captain's old car and the wardroom piano...

[Thud]

I made a potato cannon out of a school bus when I was twelve.

I stuck it in the bus's tail pipe. The driver started the bus, noticed his idle was rough and rev'd the engine up, at which point the overpressure pumped the potato through a school window.