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LONDON (Reuters) - British police charged two men with manslaughter Tuesday following the death of an Oxford University student who was flung from a giant catapult.

Bulgarian Konstadin Yankov, 19, died last November when the stunt near the West Country town of Bridgewater went wrong.

"He had been thrown by a replica medieval catapult and failed to reach the landing net," said a police spokeswoman.

Yankov was on an outing with the Oxford Stunt Factory, an unofficial club at Oxford University where he was studying biochemistry. He had been the sixth person that day to be launched from the "trebuchet" catapult.

Organizers said at the time Yankov had been properly weighed and that the machine had been correctly calibrated before he was fired in a 30-yard arc. They did not know what had gone wrong.

newshog wrote:I'd just like to point out (okay, so it's completely irrelevant to the larger point) that trebuchets are not catapults. Trebuchets rely on weight while catapults rely on tension. But both are seige engines.

Deadskins wrote:

newshog wrote:I'd just like to point out (okay, so it's completely irrelevant to the larger point) that trebuchets are not catapults. Trebuchets rely on weight while catapults rely on tension. But both are seige engines.

You are absolutely correct. I recently built a trebuchet with my son for the local science olympiad. While we were not lauching humans, we did do well enough that he is advancing to the state competition later this month.