Definition
A salute is a shell without stars, loaded solely with flash powder (potassium perchlorate and aluminium), that produces a very powerful detonation at altitude with a white flash. It is the loudest device of the show, used for the opening, to punctuate a highlight, or in bursts in the finale; in French marron d'air, in Italian colpo scuro, “dark shot”, because it leaves nothing to see. Salutes are fired from 50 to 150 mm, as single shells or chained ten to fifty for “cannonades”. They contain explosive material whose hazard division is often stricter than that of star shells, which weighs on stock classification and transport. They belong to category F4 and their safety distance is always greater than that of a standard shell of the same calibre.
In practice, for the display company
The salute is the shell declared with the greatest care: explosive content, increased distance, noise nuisance, animals. PyroDesk tracks its stock separately, includes it in the declaration with its hazard class and reminds you of the increased distance on the site plan; PyroSimulator renders the flash and the distance-delayed detonation, as the audience will hear it.