If you are someone who plays action video games, a grappling hook comes in real handy. In my experience, it helps in climbing buildings, hooking the enemy, or even picking up a nearby object. It is one of the most common tools in superhero movies as well. You must have seen Tom Cruise using it in the Mission Impossible titles, or the most common example – Batman. As it turns out, a South African tech enthusiast has made and tested a working grappling gun. Hooked yet?
JT, who previously worked as an intern with the famous YouTube channel Hacksmith Industries, has made a real-life grappling hook. Firstly, it a single unit that attaches to his arm via straps. The gun shoots hooks through a CO2 blaster. Secondly, it has a 10,000W motor, that can easily lift his body weight, and actually ascend in height, and drop him back to the ground. In a video made by JT on his YouTube channel Built IRL, he rightly differentiates his attempt with others in the past.
We are talking about a fully functioning grappling gun that can take a person’s weight. That is exciting in itself. Also, in the video, we get to know some real-life problems in making a grappling gun, which obviously did not trouble batman.
While using the grappling hook, the hand controlling the device is the hand on which JT’s boy weight rests. Using a harness to equally distribute the weight throughout his body is a smart solution. Additionally, hooking up to anything is not as easy as it is in games or movies. From what it appears, the CO2 tank needs to be replaced after every shot.
Even after all these downsides, it is amazing how JT has manages such functionality in a rather compact looking device. To add to the hype he created from his invention, he is also working on a real-life web shooter, which works on similar mechanics.
