Played with the wrong guy one time and it cost him his life.
He was brilliant. The elite establishment was foolish not to use that brilliance to the full.
Nice to see my old outfit, Yuma Proving Ground, being in the thick of this.
Lots of advantages to artillery vs. air power.
“Lots of advantages to artillery vs. air power.”
No question air power is great, but being available 24/7, artillery is like special mail delivery tailored to user needs. If in range, on call delivery is limited to shot time. And arty guys are like second-cousins to the infantry.
“Artillery; settling battlefield brawls since the 14th century”.
Other than what I read way back when, Gerald Bull was so focused on his craft that he lost sight of good guys-bad guys. Bad guys, not hampered by political oversight, were able to fund his research. One side or the other couldn’t let that stand.
Its greatest advantage? It has no conscience.
His brilliance was used to the full. There is not and never was any competition with NASA, although the research was carried out by the DoD. It was found to be infeasible.
Bull wanted to build his supergun, and Saddam Hussein was willing to pay for it. Iraq had already been a customer for his howitzer enhancements which approximately doubled their range. During the Gulf War one of the big arms dealers shed some concern troll tears for the alliance forces because he was sure those 40 mile howitzers were going to make the difference in the battle. They didn't.
Bull had already done prison time for breaking laws during his dealings with South Africa, and was smart, so he tried some more dodgy things to get (at that time restricted) carbon for the projectile sheathing, and to smuggle the barrel sections out as oil pipes. These moves were detected. He was warned by intelligence services of the UK, US, and Israel, and he had no complaint coming, riding as he was with the outlaw.
Larry Hovis, an actor best known for a role in Hogan's Heroes, was one of Gerald Bull's pallbearers, if memory serves (two books around here somewhere, as usual, I can't prove it, although I may become a columnist for "Bad Housekeeping" magazine).