Each week here on guinnessworldrecords.com, we’ll be dipping into our extensive video library to bring you a classic piece of record-breaking action.
To launch the New Year with a bang, we’re revisiting the moment Alps Fireworks Industry Co. Ltd (Japan) burst into the record books by setting off the Largest aerial firework shell ever, at the 13th Kounosu fireworks festival organised by Kounosu Junior Chamber of Commerce, in Kounosu, Saitama, Japan, on 11 October 2014.
An aerial firework shell is defined as a firework whose shell is shot into the air by a mortar and eventually erupts in the sky.
This colossal rocket shell weighed an incredible 464.826 kg (1,024.76 lb), exploding the previous record of 418 kg (921.53 lb) which was achieved by by Zenji Honda at the Katakai Fireworks Festival in Ojiya, Niigata, Japan back in 1985.
The huge firecracker reached an awe-inspiring 907 m (2,975 ft 8.66 in) from the ground to the top of the explosion, 533 m (1,748 ft 8.25 in) from the ground to the centre, and measured 748 m (2,454 ft 0.81 in) in diameter when it was launched.
Official Guinness World Records adjudicator Mariko Koike observed the record first-hand and was able to confirm its success at the event.
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