Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

The Most Unique Rocket Launch You’ll Ever See

Have you ever heard of a girandola? I had not until we came across this video — which is pretty incredible! This might be one of the most unique things I’ve ever seen.

Girandolas are flying horizontal wheels and are a favorite of pyrotechnicians.

But as rudimentary as the setting looks in the video, girandolas are high precision, finely tuned instruments. According a group of fireworks professionals called the Pennsylvania Organization of Recreational Chaos (PORC), “you must have every driver (rocket motor) fire at the same time and be precisely tuned in order for the girandola to fly. There is very little room for error or it will not fly.”

You can find more info about girandolas at the link above, or here and it looks like they are available for purchase here.

13 Replies to “The Most Unique Rocket Launch You’ll Ever See”

  3. You have to give it to the Chinese that was great especially coming from the people that invented rockets, excellent 🙂

    1. Um, the title of the video says “Thailand”, though there are people who identify as Thai Chinese.

  4. Great video! I’d never heard of them. It’s especially great that it was in daylight (unlike some samples I glanced at) so I could see more.

    How did that parachute work? The wheel was tumbling sideways (around a diameter) but the chute worked without winding around it. If it was attached on the rim at one point of the axis of rotation, wouldn’t that have moved to be the top point? If not, wouldn’t it have tangled?

  8. Good Lord! That wheel chugged like a loco pointed up to the sky. Most intriguing is the chute which opened perfectly timed amid the tumbling and after all the fireworks. Guess NASA would not feel bashful to take some notes.

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