Engineering students at BYU create Batman grappling hook gun

Batman has all kinds of cool toys and gadgets that he uses to fight crime. One of the most commonly used is his grappling hook gun that he can shoot at the top of the building or other structure, and then the gun will pull him to the top. A group of engineering students at BYU is working to bring that grappling gun to the real world.

A team of students is using this grappling gun as a Capstone project. The gun has an anchoring device able to shoot into the air and pull a person vertically up a surface as far as 90 feet. The project is being undertaken as part of the BYU Engineering Capstone class. The students plan to present projects to Air Force Research Lab in a competition against 17 other universities.

The competition will give the students 20 minutes to demonstrate the tool and then train military representatives on how to use the device and winch system the university has developed to get the people up the 90-foot vertical incline carrying 300 pounds each. The device the students created is able to climb at 30 feet per minute.

"We used Batman as a picture of what we wanted to accomplish," said senior William Tryon. "We've learned that Batman must have been really confident in his technology."