Dropping a Car and Boat Onto 2-Ton Kevlar Trampoline With 144 Garage Door Springs From 150 Feet Above

Former NASA engineer Mark Rober partnered up with Scott Gaunson, Brett Stanford and Derek Herron of How Ridiculous to design an incredibly strong, large and heavy trampoline. The surface was made out of Kevlar, which was held onto the steel frame with 144 garage door springs, all of which weighed in at two tons. Rober traveled to Australia, the home base of How Ridiculous, to test out the trampoline with items dropped from 150 feet above.

A surprisingly acrophobic Rober stood at the top of the tower, nervously tossing watermelons of the side and through a handy chute. The real test of the trampoline’s strength came from dropping a full-sized automobile from that height. The car was dropped and the trampoline held.

I’m stoked to finally show what it was like working a ‘real job’ as a Mechanical Engineer for 14 years. This collab was so fun…

Dropping Car Onto Kevlar Trampoline

How Ridiculous then took their turn, dropping a boat from the tower. The trampoline held up far better than the boat.

Dropping Boat onto Kevlar Trampoline

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.

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