Gerald Bull

Gerald Vincent Bull (March 8, 1928 - March 22, 1990) was an engineer who many consider to have developed long range artillery beyond what anyone else has accomplished. He was a driven man, who moved from project to project always chasing his dream of launching a satellite using a huge artillery piece. To this end he designed the Project Babylon "supergun" for the Iraqi government, during which he was killed (allegedly by Israeli Mossad agents) outside his home in Brussels, Belgium.

High Altitude Research Program

In 1960 he left to become a professor at McGill University, where he was soon detested by a new group of people. He also interested the US, however, in using guns to loft missile components for re-entry research, a task that was otherwise very expensive and time-consuming on rockets. With money from the Pentagon he set up Project HARP (for High Altitude Research Program) on a large plot of land in Quebec near the US border. There he began working with 5" and 7" artillery pieces.

Related Topics:
1960 - McGill University - Project HARP - Quebec

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

When basic research was completed he transferred operations to Barbados, where shells could be fired over the Atlantic Ocean. The new gun was a 16" (41 cm) naval piece, which normally fired a 700 kg shell to about 18 miles (30 km). The barrel was bored out to make a smoothbore of about 17" (43 cm), and the barrel length was extended with the addition of thinner piping at the end. Using special shells and propellant it could fire a 150 kg projectile at over 10,000 ft/s (3600 m/s).

Related Topics:
Barbados - Atlantic Ocean - Barrel

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1963 Bull started a series of test-firings using specialised discarding-sabot rounds and then finned projectiles known as Martletts. By June these had been replaced by a dart-like shell known as the Martlett-2, which was soon reaching altitudes in excess of 60 miles (100 km). More tests of the Martlett-2 continued in 1964, while work on a rocket-powered projectile started as Martlett-3. At the same time the gun itself was improved with the addition of a second length of barrel welded to the end of the existing one. Extensions like this continued until the gun eventually reached 125 feet (38 m) in length. With this new gun and the added boost of the rocket engine in the Martlett-3, it was expected to be able to reach orbit.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~