SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A team that specializes in shooting pumpkins from a giant air cannon is coming to southern Utah hoping the high elevation and thin air will help them set a world record.
The team's 90-foot, compressed-air cannon arrived by truck in Moab on Tuesday. Later this week, they're hoping to launch a 10-pound pumpkin more than 5,000 feet using a cannon barrel made out of aluminum irrigation pipe, a powerful air compression system and calculations based on computer modeling.
"Yeah, we're nerds but we kinda junkyard nerds," said Ralph Eschborn, a 62-year-old wastewater engineer from Chadds Ford, Pa., who serves as the team's co-captain.
The Guinness World Record for "punkin chunkin," as the sport is often called, is 4,491 feet, was set in Illinois in 1998.
The "Big 10 Inch Team" from Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey is banking on some extra distance firing pumpkins at an elevation of 4,000 to 5,000 feet above sea level.
"The model says that's a world record," Eschborn said. "We'll know in a couple of days."
They're setting up the cannon at an old airplane landing strip south of Moab. The shots will be part of the local Youth Garden Project's annual Pumpkin Chunkin Festival on Halloween.
The seven-member team, which predictably includes several engineers, were world champs in 1999 and 2007.
They built their first machine in 1997 and started competing the following year. The competition has become substantially stiffer in recent years as the fall sport became more popular and techniques more refined.
Eschborn's team relies on a compression system that takes 25 minutes to build up about 300 pounds of air per square inch that's released in less than a second to fire a pumpkin. Speeds can approach 700 mph, he said.
A lot, of course, depends on picking the right pumpkin, what Eschborn calls "the vagaries of vegetables."
He offers a complex explanation — complete with references to "boundary layer separation," "partial vacuum" and "skin friction" — to describe what makes for an optimal flying pumpkin. The short answer: One that's smooth, strong and around 10 pounds.
His team is bringing their own pumpkins to Moab — "We have a strategic alliance with a farmer," he says — and plans to shoot around a dozen. Some will hopefully break the record or even, in perfect conditions, fly farther than a mile, he said.
The team is also using the event as a tuneup for the 24th World Championship Punkin Chunkin contest in Delaware that starts Nov. 6.
About 13 other teams will be at the Moab competition, including one utilizing a giant sling shot and others using trebuchets, a medieval contraption designed to hurl stones.
Jen Sadoff, director of the Youth Garden Project, said she's hoping Moab becomes a hub for pumpkin chunkers looking to set new records at high altitude.
"If the team breaks the record here in Utah," she said. "I think other people from other teams that take this seriously are going to be looking for a place to come."
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