Ballista Storm System manufactures revolutionary hurricane protection panels and hurricane protection awnings. Proudly, the Ballista StormShear is an American design, manufactured by American craftsmen, using American materials. Ballista’s goal is to offer superior hurricane protection that doesn’t take away from the design or character of your building or residence. The Ballista StormShear is designed to be all but invisible when stored and the Ballista StormShear awning is designed to offer the design aesthetics of an awning while providing built-in hurricane protection that exceeds the capabilities of roll-down and accordion doors.
What is A Ballista?
Ballista (Latin, from Greek βαλλίστρα – ballistra and that from – βάλλω ballō, “throw”), is an ancient weapon used to throw projectiles during siege warfare. In short, the ballista uses tension in springs and ropes to shoot heavy darts or stones. The basic catapult design was successfully used by Alexander the Great’s father, Philip II of Macedon, and continued in wide-scale use into the middle-ages.
The name and company logo chosen and trade-marked by Ballista Storm Systems is inspired by arguably the greatest inventor of all time; Leonardo da Vinci. While many know him from iconic images of the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, or Vitruvian Man, Da Vinci cannot be constrained by the title ‘artist’. He was the “Renaissance man, a man whose unquenchable curiosity was equaled only by his powers of invention.” (Gardner, Helen (1970). Art through the Ages. pp. 450–456.)
Da Vinci’s passion for knowledge and invention drove him to always “think outside the box”. He envisioned solutions to problems that required whole new sciences and industries. For example, he designed a helicopter hundreds of year before the first working prototype was possible. He designed a tank hundreds of years before the first working model rolled across the trenches of World War I.
And, he re-thought the age old catapult designs that had been successfully used since ancient Greece. One of Da Vinci’s lesser known ballista designs became the inspiration for our company – i.e., a way to block projectiles catapulted by a hurricane – and is represented in our modern interpretation of his brilliant drawing:
Da Vinci preached that “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” By that, we think he meant that the least complex a mechanical structure can be, while achieving its designer’s goals, the better the design is. Ballista Storm Systems has taken a clean-sheet approach to changing the industry. The industry is based on a huge number of imitators selling the same roll-down and accordion designs that have been around for decades. The Ballista StormShear is a design achievement because it employs much simpler mechanics than existing designs, resulting in better looks, better performance, and better reliability, at a better price. We think Da Vinci would have appreciated our efforts.