Posted on 03/06/2012 6:57:53 PM PST by U-238
During a recent trip to Yuma Proving Ground, in Arizona, I passed a unique looking artillery piece in a remote area of the installation. It has an extremely long barrel and appeared to be anchored in a concrete abutment. Having more than a passing interest in ordnance I made some inquiries as to origins and purpose of the gun.
What I had stumbled across, on that hot desert day, was one of three unique guns that had been part of a very ambitious undertaking called the “High Altitude Research Project,” or HARP. The brainchild of Jerry Bull (of “Iranian Super Gun” fame), HARP was an innovative approach to putting satellites in space. HARP started out as a joint project between the Canadian Armaments and Research and Development Establishment (CARDE) and the U.S. Army’s Ballistic Research Laboratory and Aberdeen Proving Ground to study the upper atmosphere. It later evolved into a project to economically place satellites into orbit, as well as the basis of improved and extended range artillery.
HARP consisted of two 16-inch naval guns — one welded atop of the other with reinforcing cables and stiffening bars running the length of both barrels. The barrels were affixed to a breach anchored into a heavy concrete and steel ground-mount capable of withstanding the detonation of nearly 1,000 pounds of propellant. From a firing point located in Barbados, the HARP could send a projectile, called a Martlet, to an altitude of 180 kilometers, a record that stands today. Had it not been for political infighting and inter-service rivalries, Bull would have, undoubtedly, been successful in developing a cannon-launched satellite delivery system. Fortunately, good ideas tend to stand the test of time.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationaldefensemagazine.org ...
He was doing great, helping the South Africans blow up Cubans screwing with their borders.
Alas Jimmy Carter screwed that all up, and then to keep earning Bull went out on the world market much more aggressively, taking on many many projects from questionable entities.
If King Peanut hadn’t spoiled the soup we would have seen GREAT things from this guy.
I think they made him an American by act of Congress, so visionary was he in FA matters.
The complex should be there. It might be covered by the jungle.
The G5 is considered to be the most potent artillery pieces in the world
IIRC, he also used a small bottle of high-pressure gas within the projectile to decrease the decelerating effect of the flow-separation “vacuum” that develops immediately behind the projectile. Supposedly this helped the shell gain a lot more altitude.
Of course, in the case of a direct-to-orbit gun, that “high pressure gas bottle” would probably have been replaced with a rocket engine.
Bull worked for a company called Space Research Corporation
I am sure there are scientists who worked for the company are still out there working for other nations.Project HARP data is still available for FOIA from the Department of Defense and the US Navy.
Won't work. The electronics can't stand the extremely high G-forces associated with gun-based launches. It's why HARP failed and Bull was unable to sell the concept to the Navy in the early 1970s.
Rail gun projectiles with guidance face the same (possibly worse) problems; they can probably be beaten now.
The supergun’s Achilles heel is its fixed and very obvious position and aiming, which is one of the reasons it wasn’t pursued, or so I have read.
Bull was justifiably bitter toward the USA after being betrayed and jailed. He was working with the RSA military to develop new advanced field arty, with what he believed was “wink and nod” permission. This was the Cold War era, and even under apartheid sanctions, we did not want the communists taking over central africa.
He thought he had sanction to do the work. But he was backstabbed and jailed by State Dept weenies. So he was very pissed at the U.S. Govt.
I think that rail gun technology will work.Rail Guns also has military applications for space warfare. The theory has been around for over 100 years.In 1918, French inventor Louis Octave Fauchon-Villeplee invented an electric cannon which has a strong resemblance to the linear motor.In WWII,an electric anti-aircraft gun was proposed.In late 1944 enough theory had been worked out to allow the Luftwaffe’s Flak Command to issue a specifications for the gun.
Are you sure that's correct? How do you think the Excalibur round works...?
The Navy did not invest in it because they were short sighted and did not think about the applications.
I like the technology. It has a lot of promise.NASA can use this technology to launch satellites into orbits instead of using rockets.
I'm completely sure that it will. In fact Bull's own research got shells up to 180 km in the atmosphere, just 20 km more and that's basically outer space.
That’s right! This rich genius did like a year in prison, right? Was this for his South Africa work...?!!
>:(
I was thinking more of attaching them to satellites. You can also develop rifles that use rail gun technology.
Yes. The charge was illegal arms dealing to Aouth Africa. Six months in prison.
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