Boomerang

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Boomerang

A boomerang is an Australian Aboriginal wooden implement used for various purposes. It comes in many shapes and sizes depending on its geographic/tribal origins and intended function. The most recognisable type is the returning boomerang which, when thrown correctly, travels in a curved path and returns to its point of origin. Other types of boomerang are of the non-returning sort, and indeed, some are not thrown at all but are used in hand-to-hand combat by Aboriginal people. Boomerangs can be variously used as hunting weapons, percussive musical instruments, battle clubs, fire-starters, decoys for hunting waterfowl, and as recreational playthings. The smallest boomerang may be less than 10 cm from tip-to-tip, and the largest over 2 metres in length. Tribal boomerangs may be incised and/or painted with designs meaningful to its maker. Most boomerangs seen today are of the tourist or competition sort, and are almost invariably of the returning type.

'To boomerang' has entered the English language, meaning akin to 'backfire' as in: 'this plan could very well boomerang on us'. This term has also been used to signify young adults who temporarily return home to live with their parents after several years away in a job or college, often for financial reasons.

History

Boomerang-like devices, including hunting sticks, have been used all over the world for hunting, religious and recreational activities. Their origin is still not fully clear. Research has shown that ancient tribes in Europe used special throwing axes. Also, in ancient Egypt a special type of stick was exclusively used by the pharaohs for hunting birds. However, the world famous "country of the boomerang" is Australia, where the Australian Aborigines have used both boomerangs and hunting sticks for thousands of years. The name of the boomerang comes from the Indigenous Australian Turuwal tribe of Aborigines who lived south of Sydney, Australia.

Note that the word "boomerang" automatically implies it is returning; a hunting, or throwing, stick (called a "kylie" by boomerang enthusiasts), is a different thing, and the two terms should not be used interchangeably. There is little to no evidence that returning boomerangs were ever used as hunting tools.

Today, boomerangs are most often used as sporting items. There are different types of throwing contests: accuracy of return; aussie round; trick catch; maximum time aloft; fast catch; and endurance (See below). The modern sport boomerang (often referred to as a 'boom' or 'rang'), is made of Finnish birch plywood, hardwood, plastic or composite materials and comes in many different shapes and colors. Most sport boomerangs typically weigh less than 100 grams, with MTA boomerangs (boomerangs used for the maximum time aloft event) often under 25 grams.

Competitions and records

In international competition, a world cup is held every second year, with teams from Germany and the United States dominating international competition. The individual World Champion title was won in 2000, 2002 and 2004 by Swiss thrower Manuel Schütz.

Events

In the U.S., most competitions are comprised of six standard events as follows:

Accuracy 50/100: Boomerangs are thrown from the center of a bullseye and points are awarded based on where they land. The scores from either five (Accuracy 50) or ten throws (Accuracy 100) are then added.
Aussie Round: Boomerangs are thrown from the centre of a bullseye and points are awarded both for where they are caught within the bullseye and for how far they travel (up to 80 meters). The scores from five throws are added.
MTA 100: In MTA, or Maximum Time Aloft, boomerangs are thrown and must be caught within a 100 meter diameter circle. Generally, times are added from the best three of five throws.
Trick Catch: A series of progressively difficult trick catches is made with one boomerang, then with two simultaneously.
Fast Catch: Five consecutive throws and catches are made from the center of the bullseye in the shortest amount of time possible.
Endurance: As many consecutive throws and catches are made from the center of the bullseye as possible within five minutes.

Other events are possible such as long distance, GLORP (similar to basketball's HORSE), or juggling among others.

World records

(october 2005)

Discipline	Result	Name	Year	Tournament
Accuracy 100	97 points	H.G. Hoffmann / Thomas Szartowicz (D)	2005	Lausanne (CH)
Accuracy 50	68 points	Thomas Stehrenberger (CH)	2001	Lausanne (CH)
Aussie Round	96 points	Fridolin Frost (D) / John Flynn (USA)	2005	Lausanne (CH) / Delaware (USA)
Endurance	81 catches	Manuel Schütz (CH)	2005	Milano (I)
Fast Catch	14,60 s	Adam Ruhf (USA)	1996	Emmaus (USA)
Trick Catch/Doubling	390 points	Manuel Schütz (CH)	2004	Milano (I)
Consecutive Catch	1297 catches	Manuel Schütz (CH)	2005	Aalen (D)
MTA 100	104,87 s	Eric Darnell (USA)	1997	Portland (USA)
MTA unlimited	190.2 s	Arnaud Tribillon (F)	2005	Dijon (F)
Long Distance	238 m	Manuel Schütz (CH)	1999	Kloten (CH)

None-discipline record: Smallest Boomerang: Sadir Kattan of Australia in 1997 with 48 mm in long and 45 mm in wide.

Design

A returning boomerang is a propeller. Though it is not a requirement that the boomerang be in its traditional shape, it is usually flat. A falling boomerang starts spinning and most then fall in a spiral. When the boomerang is thrown with high spin, the wings produce lift. Larger boomerangs are used in hunting, thus they drop on the ground after striking the target. Smaller ones are use in sport, and are the only boomerangs that return to the thrower. Because of its rapid spinning, a boomerang flies in a circular pattern rather than a straight line. It naturally returns to its starting point unless all spin is eaten up.

Now in more detail:

Returning boomerangs consist of two or more arms or wings, connected at an angle. Each wing is shaped as an airfoil, air travels faster over one surface of an airfoil than the other, as it follows the longer path, thus creating lift, along what is roughly a plane which intersects the airfoil at a near right angle along the long axis of the wing.

These wings are set so that the lift created by each wing opposes the lift of the other, but at an angle such that the flight pattern is constantly shifted as the forces of lift, drag, speed, rotational inertia etc. 'attempt' to reach equilibrium, see Boomerang engineer.

This is what makes the boomerang 'return gracefully to the thrower, fluttering to a stop in his hand'... when thrown correctly. This is also what makes the boomerang 'rocket straight up into the air before plunging to its shattered doom'... when thrown incorrectly. With the exception of long-distance boomerangs, they should not be thrown sidearm or like a frisbee, but rather almost vertically.

Fast Catch boomerangs usually have three symmetrical wings (in the planform view), whereas a Long Distance boomerang is most often shaped very similar to a question mark. Maximum Time Aloft boomerangs have one wing considerably longer than the other. This feature, along with carefully executed bends and twists in the wings, help to set up an 'auto-rotation' effect to maximize the boomerang's hover-time in descending from its highest point in the flight.

Prominent boomerang designer/builders include Bob Burwell and Tony Butz from Australia, Rusty Harding from the USA, Jerri Leu from Brazil and others.

Basic throwing instructions

A right-handed boomerang circles towards the left, a left-handed boomerang circles towards the right. Most sport boomerangs are in the range of 2.5 to about 4 ounces. the range on most of these is between 25 - 40 yards (or meters)
A right or left handed boomerang can be thrown with either hand, but the flight direction will depend upon the boomerang, not the thrower.
Grasp one wing of the boomerang nearly vertically so that the other wing points forward and the flat side is away from you. The other way works also, but this way is usually easier to learn. Holding the tip by just the end between your thumb and one or two fingers, launch the boomerang forward quickly while trying more for spin than for very much force.
The boomerang should flatten out on its own and arc around, sometimes coming to rest a little in front of the thrower or behind the thrower, but ideally it should hover gently and allow the thrower to catch it as a sort of "boomerang sandwich" between the thrower's hands.
One should not throw a returning boomerang level, like a flying disc. The boomerang will turn in the direction of the top of its airfoils, so if that direction happens to be up rather than to the side it may fly high enough that the landing causes damage to the boomerang or whatever it lands on.

Trivia

There are many injected plastic molds in the world but the most famous and used are the Tri-Fly from Eric Darnell (USA) and the LMI&FOX Models (France).
The boomerang sport in Brazil is growing fast with many news: special plywood created for boomerangs (BWoods), Kellogg's company inserting five million boomerangs in cereal boxes, and the First Pan-American Championship set for August 2005.
The most famous seller in the world is "The Boomerang Man", http://www.theboomerangman.com Richard Harrison. Since 1975 he has introduced thousands of new throwers to the sport.
The next World Championship will be held in Asahikawa, Japan, in 2006.
While fiercely competitive, almost all throwers are amateurs in the sense that they do not receive money as prizes.
The International Federation of Boomerang Associations (IFBA) was officially launched in 2004 at the World Championships in France.
Link from the Legend of Zelda series also uses a boomerang. In the 2D games, it crossed half or the full screen before returning. In the 3D games, it can be aimed towards enemies and objects. It is referred to as the "Gale Boomerang" in the upcoming Zelda title (Twilight Princess). Both the Gale Boomerang and the one from The Wind Waker can lock onto multiple targets at once. Some of the 2D titles also featured the "magic boomerang" which could be steered after being thrown.
A slang term for "boomerang" is "boomer" in some parts of Australia and Irvine.
The long distance boomerang world record is 238 m, held by Manuel Schütz of Switzerland. The boomerang probably travelled more than 500 m before returning to its starting point!
Sango, a fictional character from the manga and anime series Inuyasha uses a giant boomerang that's length is about the same as her height.
The Strike Gundam, Justice Gundam, and Impulse Gundam from the anime series Gundam Seed and its sequel Gundam Seed Destiny are all equipped with beam boomerangs.
Captain Boomerang is a well known Flash villain and member of the Suicide Squad.
One of Batman's commonly used weapons are batarangs. It is a customized boomerang and is shaped like a bat that comes in different varieties like a batarang that explodes on impact, electrocutes its target, freezes its target, etc. An electronic boomerang is featured in the movie Batman Returns
The character Aika from the game Skies of Arcadia uses a boomerang of sorts as her primary weapon.
The Mega Man series has featured a few bosses that have used boomerangs as weapons. The most obvious example is in Mega Man II, in which Quick Man uses his "Quick Boomerang" against Mega Man. In Mega Man IV, Ring Man throws a ring-shaped object that seems to function identically. Mega Man 8's Tengu Man carries a giant shuriken on his back that returns to him like a boomerang.
In the video game Suikoden 2 the character millie uses a normal wooden boomerang and in it's sequel suikoden 5 the character faylen uses a huge metal boomerang, also the characters ( in suikoden 5) sialeeds and sharmitsa use chakrams that act like boomerangs.
In the video game Kya Dark Lineage the main character kya uses a boomy which is a boomerang exept its shape and size are different than a normal boomerang.
In the video game Ty the Tasmanian Tiger ty uses a variety of boomerangs with different powers.
In the video game chrono cross the charcters Van and Mel use boomerangs as their weapons.

Boomerang quotes

"Remember, you are the target!" a traditional warning to beginning hurlers.
"That throwing stick of yours has boomeranged on us!" a quote from The Simpsons.

Related terms

A Kylie is one of the Aboriginal words for the hunting stick used in warfare and for hunting animals. Instead of following a curved flight path, it flies in a straight line from the thrower. They are typically much larger than boomerangs. It can travel very long distances, and due to its size and hook shape can cripple or kill an animal. The word is perhaps an English corruption of a word meaning boomerang taken from one of the Western Desert languages, for example, the Warlpiri word karli.

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