Swift as a weaver's shuttle

One of the most important advances in the Industrial Revolution was the invention of a mechanical cotton weaving loom. It used to be done by hand. You weave by making one thread go in and out horizontally through vertical threads. The woven horizontal thread then holds the vertical threads together. In the machine, the horizontal thread was attached to a heavy, steel-tipped piece of wood called a flying shuttle.

This was then fired across the loom. You can see the firing lever at the top of the next picture. The flying shuttle can be seen just above the middle of the picture.

The next picture shows the loom. The flying shuttle is fired left to right, the right to left and so on. It passes through the middle of the white cloth.

Now the Physics... I was told that the flying shuttle went across, back and across again in 1 second - that's 3 crossings in 1 second. I was told that it reached a speed of 45 mph. You need to:
1. Turn 45 mph into metres per second.
2. Use suvat to calculate the acceleration of the shuttle - you'll have to estimate the width of the machine.
3. Use the first picture to given a reasoned estimate for the mass of the largest flying shuttle.
4. Calculate the momentum of the shuttle when it hits the end.
5. Newton's Second Law says that force = rate of change of momentum. Calculate the force as the shuttle hits the end.
6. I was told that if the shuttle jumped out of the loom and hit your head, it would kill you. Do these results back that claim?

Final note is that the quotation "Swift as a weaver's shuttle, fleet our years" comes from the Book of Job in the Bible. But I learned it from a Robert Browning poem when I was at school http://www.bartleby.com/337/1235.html It is in line 51.