Catapult hurls obsolete projectiles

HUGO, Minn., Oct. 26 (UPI) -- Four Minnesota friends say they've fashioned a medieval catapult to fling a variety of objects -- such as wheelchairs and obsolete appliances -- into the sky.

The men, all in their 30s, built a trebuchet -- a catapult originally designed in the Middle Ages to hurl objects at castle walls -- the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press reported Sunday.

The trebuchet was built by Kurt Modert of Hugo, Roger Bacon of White Bear Lake, Ryan Krueger of Maple Grove and David Proehl of New Hope, the newspaper said.

They're catapulting items like defective bowling balls for now but plan eventually to launch a clothes dryer, the newspaper said.

The friends began construction of their trebuchet in spring 2008 using lumber, landscape timbers, aluminum plates and old garage door panels.

"It's stuff you can get at any Menard's. Kurt doesn't have much of a life, so he was working on the trebuchet all the time," said Bacon.

The full-scale catapult is constructed and permanently mounted on Modert's mother's 12-acre residential property, just a few yards from her house.

"It's too big to move," Modert said.

The friends are not certain how the project, which cost them $2,500, will affect the value of her property.

"The tax assessor did come out earlier this year, and we're waiting to see what he says," Bacon said.