Buoyancy Launcher, Hurling Life Preservers Up To 450 Feet To Save Lives
From the archive: published Oct 5, 2010, 16 years ago. Details may have changed since.
If you’ve ever watched an episode of Deadliest Catch, you know that when a person falls overboard they can quickly be swept out to sea, even taking a few seconds to throw the overboard person a life preserver can mean trying to hurl it a few hundred feet. That’s where the Buoyancy launcher comes into life saving play.
Created by Samuel Adeloju, the winner of this years $16,000 James Dyson Awards, the Buoyancy Launcher works like a cannon for preservers, launching them up to 450 feet (150 meters) from the deck of the boat.
That’s not even the cool part, this device doesn’t just hurl a floating ring, it sends condense bullets of hydrophobic foam into the air which allows it to travel through bad weather conditions while expanding and turning into a life saving preserver when it hits water.
Think this is just a protype that will never see the light of day? It’s rumored to start showing up on various boats in the near future. [ via DVICE]