Awesome / Scrapheap Challenge

• Happens when something bodged together in just ten hours from hunks of scraps works far better than it should by the laws of reality. A notable example included a boat made from oil drums and a hearse engine made by one of the teams which outran the professional speedboat used by the camera crew
• When a Pumpkin Launcher built out of scrap in 2 days, which had to be shipped across in pieces and assembled on-site, ended up winning Second Place in the US Pumpkin Throwing Tournament, whose entrants frequently used air cannons and often had a year in which to build their machines.
• In the 100 Years Of Flight special, the American and French teams tested their aircraft with extreme caution, accelerating them very gently to the point where they began to lift, then setting down and decelerating equally slowly. The British team's biplane went from standing still to circling overhead in seconds.

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