tl;dr: Tom Stanton built a gravity-powered trebuchet that broke the sound barrier, launching a 4-gram projectile at 776 mph using only a falling 40kg weight. Key innovations included a 3:1 tapered pulley system to convert torque into rotational speed at release, a 116-gram CNC-milled carbon fiber arm, and a millisecond-precise mechanical release mechanism. High-speed footage and an audible sonic boom confirmed the projectile exceeded Mach 1.