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Gerald Bull

 

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Gerald Bull



 
 
Gerald Vincent Bull (March 9, 1928 - March 22, 1990) was a Canadian engineer who developed long range artillery
Artillery

Artillery is a military Combat Arms which employs any apparatus, machine, an assortment of tools or instruments, a system or systems used as weapons for the discharge of large projectiles in combat as a major contribution of fire power within the overall military capability of an armed force....
. He moved from project to project in his quest to economically launch a satellite
Satellite

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an Physical body which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
 using a huge artillery piece. To this end he designed the Project Babylon
Project Babylon

Project Babylon was a project allegedly commissioned by the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein during the Iran?Iraq War to build a series of superguns....
 "supergun
Supergun

A supergun is an extraordinarily large cannon with an extremely high muzzle velocity and large caliber. They were used to bombard an enemy from extremely long range and destroy heavy fortifications....
" for the Iraq
Iraq

Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
i government. He was assassinated by a gunman outside his home in Brussels
Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Capital-Region, is the de facto capital city of the European Union and the largest urban area in Belgium....
, Belgium
Belgium

* A small German-speaking Community of Belgium exists in eastern Wallonia. Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political and cultural conflicts are reflected in the history of Belgium and a complex Communities and regions of Belgium....
.

was born in North Bay, Ontario
North Bay, Ontario

North Bay is a city in Northeastern Ontario, Canada . North Bay takes its name from its position on the shore of Lake Nipissing, and covers an area of 314.92 km? It is the seat of Nipissing District, Ontario....
, part of the large family of George Bull and Gertrude Isabelle LaBrosse.






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Encyclopedia


Gerald Vincent Bull (March 9, 1928 - March 22, 1990) was a Canadian engineer who developed long range artillery
Artillery

Artillery is a military Combat Arms which employs any apparatus, machine, an assortment of tools or instruments, a system or systems used as weapons for the discharge of large projectiles in combat as a major contribution of fire power within the overall military capability of an armed force....
. He moved from project to project in his quest to economically launch a satellite
Satellite

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an Physical body which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
 using a huge artillery piece. To this end he designed the Project Babylon
Project Babylon

Project Babylon was a project allegedly commissioned by the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein during the Iran?Iraq War to build a series of superguns....
 "supergun
Supergun

A supergun is an extraordinarily large cannon with an extremely high muzzle velocity and large caliber. They were used to bombard an enemy from extremely long range and destroy heavy fortifications....
" for the Iraq
Iraq

Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
i government. He was assassinated by a gunman outside his home in Brussels
Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Capital-Region, is the de facto capital city of the European Union and the largest urban area in Belgium....
, Belgium
Belgium

* A small German-speaking Community of Belgium exists in eastern Wallonia. Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political and cultural conflicts are reflected in the history of Belgium and a complex Communities and regions of Belgium....
.

Education


Early life

Bull was born in North Bay, Ontario
North Bay, Ontario

North Bay is a city in Northeastern Ontario, Canada . North Bay takes its name from its position on the shore of Lake Nipissing, and covers an area of 314.92 km? It is the seat of Nipissing District, Ontario....
, part of the large family of George Bull and Gertrude Isabelle LaBrosse. Bull was from a family based in the Trenton
Trenton, Ontario

Trenton is a community in the municipality of Quinte West, Ontario, Canada. Located on the Bay of Quinte, it is the main population centre in Quinte West....
 area and had moved to North Bay in 1903 to start a law firm. LaBrosse was from a family that had helped open the mining areas in the Sudbury and North Bay area, but as a Catholic the two would normally be forbidden from marrying, as Bull was Anglican. The diocese of Sudbury contains a record showing Bull converted to Catholicism on 20 February 1909, and the two married three days later. As a result of these events, Bull's family disowned their errant son for decades. Over the next few years the couple had a number of children, Bernice Gwendolyn Florence, Henry, Philis, Charles Esmond, Clyde, Vivian, Ronald, Frank, Gerald, and finally Gordon.

Bull's firm was successful in North Bay, and he was offered the position of King's Counsel on 9 March 1928. His personal wealth was further increased by the inheritance of several family properties in Trenton. The family was well off in spite of being so large, and Bull was able to make investments for their future. All of this was wiped out in the Wall Street Crash of 1929
Wall Street Crash of 1929

The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, taking into consideration the full extent and longevity of its fallout....
 and following Great Depression
Great Depression

File:International depression.pngThe Great Depression was a worldwide economic Recession starting in most places in 1929 and ending at different times in the 1930s or early 1940s for different countries....
. Northern Ontario, having only recently "opened" through mining, suffered the crash particularly hard, and 80% of the businesses in North Bay failed. Within a year the loans Bull had taken to buy stocks on margin were called in, and the family was forced to move to Toronto to look for work.

The next year Gertrude suffered complications while giving birth to Gordon, and she fell ill. Five weeks later she died on 1 April 1931. George suffered a nervous breakdown and started to drink heavily, returning to Trenton and having his sister Laura, a retired nurse, care for the children. As George kicked the drinking and started looking for work again, Laura fell victim to cancer and died in the summer of 1934. The next year the banks foreclosed on the family home. The same year, George, at the age of 58, met and married Rose Bleeker, and moved back to Toronto with her, giving up the children to various relatives, Gerald ending up with his older sister, Bernice.

In the summer of 1938 Gerald was sent to spend the holidays with another set of relatives, Philip and Edith LeBrosse. Edith had won the Irish Sweepstakes
Irish Hospitals' Sweepstake

The Irish Hospitals' Sweepstake was a lottery established in the Irish Free State in 1930 as the Irish Free State Hospitals' Sweepstake to finance hospitals, and is often referred to as the Irish Sweepstake....
 in 1931 and the couple was relatively well off. Gerald professed little memory of the family, but evidence suggests he wanted to remain with them after the holidays. They had already planned a vacation, however, so Gerald was sent to an all-boys school run by the Jesuit order, Regiopolis College
Regiopolis-Notre Dame Catholic Secondary School

Regiopolis - Notre Dame Catholic Secondary School is a secondary school located in Kingston, Ontario, Ontario, Canada offering grades 9 to 12....
 in Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario

Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, where the lake runs into the St. Lawrence River and the Thousand Islands begin....
. Although too young to attend, for some unrecorded reason (likely a large donation) he started attending in 1938, returning to spend the summers with the LeBrosses. During this time he took up the hobby of building balsa wood airplanes, eventually of his own design, and was a member of the school's modeling club. The LeBrosses moved to Toronto and Gerry went to a local Catholic school for one term, but returned to board at Regiopolis until graduating in 1944.

University

After graduating, Bull entered Queen's University
Queen's University

Queen's University, generally referred to simply as Queen's, is a coeducational, non-sectarian, research intensive, public university located in Kingston, Ontario, Ontario, Canada....
, with an eye to eventually entering officer's training school. Philip LeBrosse had bigger plans, and visited the University of Toronto
University of Toronto

The University of Toronto is a public university research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated a mile north of the city's Financial District, Toronto on grounds that surround Queen's Park ....
 with an eye to having Bull placed there. He wrote to Bull, who was in Kingston, having found room in the medical school. Bull declined the offer and instead asked LeBrosse if a position in the new aeronautical engineering course was available. Brand-new, the department had few hard and fast rules for entrance, and were willing to interview Bull even though he was only sixteen years old. After meeting him in person he was accepted into the undergraduate program. Records and recollections of both classmates and his professors show little in the way of brilliance; one professor noted "He certainly didn't stand out". Graduating in 1948 with marks that were described as "strictly average", Bull took a drafting job at A.V. Roe Canada.

Later that year the University opened a new Institute of Aerodynamics (now the Institute for Aerospace Studies) under the direction of Dr. Gordon Patterson. The Institute operated on a shoestring budget and could only afford to employ twelve students, accepting three a year for a four year period funded by the Defence Research Board (DRB). Bull applied and was accepted at Patterson's personal recommendation, as he felt that any lack in academics was made up for by Bull's tremendous energy. Bull was soon partnered up with fellow student Doug Henshaw, and the two were given the task of building a supersonic wind tunnel, at that time a relatively rare device. The two ran out of room to build in, and soon knocked a hole into Patterson's office, slowly encroaching on his space and eventually having to stand on his desk to adjust the device.

Matters improved when the Royal Canadian Air Force
Royal Canadian Air Force

The Royal Canadian Air Force was the air force of Canada from 1924 until 1968 when the three branches of the Canadian military were merged into the Canadian Forces....
 donated land adjacent to RCAF Station Downsview
CFB Downsview

Canadian Forces Base Downsview is a former Canadian Forces Base in Toronto, Ontario, Ontario....
 to the Institute and the operations were quickly moved. During construction, Bull used the device as the basis for his 15 September 1949 Master's thesis, on the design and construction of advanced wind tunnels. The tunnel was to be featured prominently during the opening of the new Institute grounds, leading to an all-night rush to get it fully operational in time for the presentation, which included Dean Kenneth Tupper who joined after driving by and seeing the lights on. The work was finally completed at 3:30 am, but the team was too exhausted to test it. The next day Air Marshal Curtis pushed the button and nothing happened, but Patterson quickly reached around, pushed harder, and to everyone's relief it worked perfectly.

Bull had at this time largely finished his PhD thesis, on the same topic, when a 1950 request from the DRB asking that the Institute provide an aerodynamicist to help on their Velvet Glove missile project. No money was available for paying the "volunteer", who would have to remain on their normal PhD stipend. Patterson selected Bull for the position. This would lead to a fruitful period of work at the Canadian Armament and Research Development Establishment, or CARDE.

Career


CARDE

CARDE, the Canadian Armament and Research Development Establishment, was formed as a joint Canadian-British operation studying artillery and ballistics, in an effort to harness the intellectual resources of Canada, as well as place developing British technology outside of German reach during World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
. Formed up on a Military training area and artillery range outside Valcartier, northwest of Quebec City
Quebec City

Qu?bec or Quebec, also Quebec City or Qu?bec City , is the Capital of the Canada Provinces and territories of Canada of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region....
, CARDE was one of a number of research divisions of the DRB that were well funded in the immediate post-war era. CARDE was researching supersonic
Supersonic

The term supersonic is used to define a speed that is over the speed of sound . At a typical temperature like 21 ?C , the threshold value required for an object to be traveling at a supersonic speed is approximately 344 metre per second, ....
 flight and a variety of rocket and missile projects when Bull was asked to join. Bull asked to build a wind tunnel for this research, but his suggestions were dismissed as too expensive and he had to do all of his work on paper.

Falling increasingly behind in their calculations, the artillerymen at CARDE suggested that they could solve their problems by firing models out of existing guns in order to gather real-world data. This was Bull's introduction to artillery. A former Ordnance QF 25 pounder
Ordnance QF 25 pounder

The Ordnance QF 25 pounder , or more simply, 25-pounder or 25-pdr, was introduced into service just before World War II, during which it served as the major United Kingdom field gun/howitzer....
 (almost certainly a Canadian-built version) was bored out to produce a six-inch smoothbore. Borrowing an idea developed in England in 1916, cards were placed on holders along the range and scaled models of the missile fired through them. In some ways this technique was superior to wind tunnels, as it allowed for the direct measurement of real-world influences on the trajectory, something that could only be calculated otherwise. On the downside, reducing the collected data to a mathematical trajectory for checking against the theoretical calculations is difficult. The range eventually developed into a 1000-foot long walled and covered trench with cards hung every ten feet down its length.

Bull was at CARDE briefly before returning to the University to defend his thesis in March 1951, at 23 years old becoming the youngest PhD graduate in the Institute's history — a record that remains to this day. He returned to CARDE, now on the DRB's payroll, and continued working on the instrumented guns. On one of these trips, in 1953, he and a friend stopped in Charny
Charny, Quebec

Charny is a small town in central Quebec, Canada, south of Quebec City, Quebec. It is located on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River. The City of Charny was merged with L?vis, Quebec on January 1 2002....
 after a fishing trip to drop off some of their catch at a local doctor's house. Bull met Noemi "Mimi" Gilbert, the doctor's daughter, and the two soon started dating. Given Bull's work schedule they were rarely able to see each other, but they became engaged in February 1954, and married on 15 July. Dr. Gilbert gave the couple a small house as a wedding gift. Mimi gave birth to their first son, Phillippe, on 3 July 1955, and a second, Michael, in November 1956.

In 1954 Bull decided that a wind tunnel was too important to ignore, even if he could not arrange for funding through the DRB. Instead, he gained the ear of professors at Laval University in Quebec City, and Bull and a number of graduate students started work on a tunnel similar to the one he had earlier built at the UofT. It opened in the summer of 1955 and was capable of speeds up to Mach 4, but cost only $6000, the result of using scrap for most of its parts.

Bull's work was brought to the public's attention in a 20 May 1955 Toronto Telegram
Toronto Telegram

The Toronto Telegram was a conservatism, broadsheet afternoon daily newspaper published in Toronto, Canada, from 1876 to 1971....
 headline article, Unveil Canadian Gun that Fires 4,550 M.P.H. Missiles. Around this time Bull further improved the data-collection capabilities of the system by developing a telemetry system that could be fit in the models. DRB staff thought the idea was unworkable and worked against having it funded, but Bull shuffled his own department's funding and went ahead and developed it anyway. All the parts of Bull's future efforts, smoothbore high-velocity guns, sabots for increasing performance, and hardened electronics, were now complete.

Work on the Velvet Glove ended in 1956, and the DRB turned its attention to anti-ballistic missile
Anti-ballistic missile

An anti-ballistic missile is a missile designed to counter ballistic missiles . A ballistic missile is used to deliver nuclear weapon, Chemical warfare, Biological warfare or conventional warheads in a ballistics flight trajectory....
s (ABMs). Bull's gun system was not fast enough to be useful in this role, so it was adapted to use a "sabot
Sabot

A sabot is a device used in a firearm or cannon to fire a projectile, such as a bullet, that is smaller than the caliber diameter. The term is also applied to a battery stub case, a device used similarly to make a small battery usable instead of a List of battery sizes one....
" to improve its performance. Bull then moved on to hyper-sonics research and the study of infrared
Infrared

Infrared radiation is electromagnetic radiation whose wavelength is longer than that of visible light , but shorter than that of terahertz radiation and microwaves ....
 and radar cross section
Radar cross section

Radar cross section is a measure of how detectable an object is with a radar. When radar waves are beamed at a target, only a certain amount is reflected back....
s for detection. But as the UK's own research efforts wound down in the Post-War political environment, CARDE's joint UK-Canadian funding was dramatically curtailed, eventually being handed over to the Canadians entirely. Further cuts made by the Canadian government followed. Bull was vocal about this turn of events, calling the Liberal government of the day "second-rate lawyers and jumped-up real-estate salesmen".

During this period CARDE was visited by a US team, including Lieutenant General Arthur Trudeau, who was extremely impressed with Bull's work. Trudeau was director of US Army Research and Development, and he quickly set up a similar effort at the Aberdeen Proving Ground
Aberdeen Proving Ground

Aberdeen Proving Ground is a United States Army facility located near Aberdeen, Maryland . Part of the facility is a census-designated place , which had a population of 3,116 at the United States Census, 2000....
 under the direction of Dr. Charles Murphy. They built an analog of Bull's gun using a gun and started test firing it over the Atlantic in 1961. The team used a fire-control radar from a Nike Hercules missile battery to track the shells, which released a cloud of chaff
Chaff

Chaff is the inedible, dry, scaly protective casings of the seeds of cereal grain, or similar fine, dry, scaly plant material such as scaly parts of flowers, or finely chopped straw....
 at altitudes up to 130,000.

Around the same time, Bull and Murphy started discussing the idea of firing scale aircraft models from their guns. Both started working on the idea, but Bull beat Murphy when he successfully fired a model of the Gloster Javelin
Gloster Javelin

The Gloster Aircraft Company Javelin was an "all-weather" interceptor aircraft that served with United Kingdom Royal Air Force in the late 1950s and most of the 1960s....
 from his gun and managed to take shadowgraph photos of it clearly showing supersonic shock cones. Bull then used the same method to work on the Avro Arrow, discovering an instability that led to the use of a stability augmentation system. However, work on the Arrow was soon cancelled in infamous fashion, which angered Bull.

With attention turning to space after the launch of Sputnik in 1957, Bull leaked a story that Canada would soon match this feat by placing a high-velocity gun in the nose of a US Army Redstone missile. The story was a complete fabrication, but caused a major stir when it hit the papers on 22 April 1958. After the story broke Prime Minister John Diefenbaker
John Diefenbaker

John George Diefenbaker, Queen's Privy Council for Canada, Order of the Companions of Honour, Queen's Counsel, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Royal Society of Arts was the 13th Prime Minister of Canada, serving from June 21, 1957 to April 22, 1963....
 was besieged in the House of Commons press scrum, later dismissing it stating that "There is no foundation whatsoever to the story, not a scintilla of truth to it". A major flap broke out as a result, leading to the dressing down of several of Bull's superiors. When the press was invited to visit CADRE, the Canadian Broadcasting Company broadcast a piece covering much of the work at CADRE on May 11th, including lengthy sections on Bull's gun and their work on infrared
Infrared

Infrared radiation is electromagnetic radiation whose wavelength is longer than that of visible light , but shorter than that of terahertz radiation and microwaves ....
 detection and anti-ballistic missile
Anti-ballistic missile

An anti-ballistic missile is a missile designed to counter ballistic missiles . A ballistic missile is used to deliver nuclear weapon, Chemical warfare, Biological warfare or conventional warheads in a ballistics flight trajectory....
 systems.

On 1 April 1961 Bull got into an argument with his direct superior over paperwork. Bull wrote out his resignation. A report prepared after his departure stated "...his tempestuous nature and strong dislike for administration and red tape constantly led him into trouble with senior management."

High Altitude Research Program


Bull had long prepared for this event, and soon re-appeared as a professor at McGill University
McGill University

McGill University is a Public university#Canada located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university....
, which was in the process of building up a large engineering department under the direction of Donald Mordell. Mordell had long maintained links with CADRE and became one of Bulls' ardent supporters, in spite of what other professors saw as "second-rate attempts at manipulation" and that "[Mordell] always supported Bull's work… I think sometimes he got pretty tired of supporting Bull." Bull, for his part, appeared to enjoy the new position, and later described it as "a marriage made in heaven." Bull remained in contact with his counterparts in the US and the University of Toronto, and set about equipping the University with the instrumentation it would need to be a leader in the field of aerodynamics.

Several years earlier, while still working at CADRE, Gerald and Mimi had purchased a plot of land on the Québec-Vermont border. Bull donated the land to be used by McGill and turned into a new ballistics lab, a private analog of the CADRE site. Renamed to become "Highwater Station" due to the local village of Highwater, the site was quickly developed under the direction of former British Army
British Army

The British Army is the Army branch of the British Armed Forces. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdoms of Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707....
 colonel Robert Stacy, who bulldozed large sections, built various test facilities and ran power to the site. There they began working with 5" and 7" artillery pieces.

In the fall of 1961 Bull visited Murphy and Trudeau at Aberdeen and was able to interest them in the idea using guns to loft missile components for re-entry research, a task that was otherwise very expensive and time-consuming aboard rockets. They arranged funding for the work under Project HARP (for High Altitude Research Program, not to be confused with HAARP). The US Navy supplied a surplus 16" battleship gun, and a contract from the Office of Naval Research
Office of Naval Research

The Office of Naval Research , headquartered in Arlington, Virginia , is the office within the United States Department of the Navy that coordinates, executes, and promotes the science and technology programs of the U.S....
 paid for the gun to be re-bored into a 16.4" smoothbore. The entire contract, excluding shipping, was only $2,000.

The performance of the gun was so great that the Highwater site was too small to support it. McGill had long been running a meteorological station on Barbados
Barbados

Barbados , situated just east of the Caribbean Sea, is an independent Continental Island-island nation in the western Atlantic Ocean. Located at roughly 13? North of the equator and 59? West of the prime meridian, it is considered a part of the Lesser Antilles....
 and had close connections with the new Democratic Labour Party
Democratic Labour Party (Barbados)

The Democratic Labour Party is the social democracy ruling party in Barbados.The DLP was founded in 1955, by Errol Barrow. Once a member of the Barbados Labour Party, Barrow broke away to form this more left-leaning alternative....
 (DLP), and suggested that it would make an ideal location for the gun to be set up. Bull met with Prime Minister Errol Barrow
Errol Barrow

Errol Walton Barrow was a Caribbean statesman and the first Prime Minister of Barbados Barbados. Born into a family of political and civic activists in the parish of Saint Lucy, Barbados and educated at Harrison College, his sister Dame Nita Barrow also became a social activist, humanitarian leader and later Governor General of Barbados....
 who became an enthusiastic supporter of HARP, and arranged for a firing site in Foul Bay, on the south-west corner of the island near the Seawell Airport
Grantley Adams International Airport

The Grantley Adams International Airport , is found in Seawell, Christ Church Parish, Barbados on the island of Barbados. The former name of the airport was Seawell Airport before being dedicated in honor of the first Premier of Barbados, Sir Grantley Herbert Adams in 1976....
. The guns arrived in early 1962 but could not be put ashore at the site and had to be offloaded down the coast, and then transported overland via a purpose-built railway that employed hundreds of locals. As the project continued, this figure grew to over 300 permanently employed with the project, and it became a major reason for Barrow's continued support. Bull encouraged the locals to use the project as a stepping-stone to a science or engineering degree of their own, and his efforts were widely lauded in the press.

In January 1962 the first test shot was carried out, firing an empty sabot. The test was completely successful, so a further two similar firings were abandoned and the second firing was made with a dart-like finned projectile named Martlet (after the mythical bird
Martlet

A martlet is a bird often used in heraldry. A martlet looks similar to the hirundinidae, but has short tufts of feathers in the place of legs....
 without feet on the McGill University crest). These tests demonstrated several problems, including poor shot-to-shot performance of the decades-old gunpowder, and the fact that the projectile left the barrel so quickly that the powder didn't have time to burn completely. New charges using modern powder were soon supplied, and by November 1962 the 150 kilogram Martlets were being fired at over 10,000 ft/s (3048 m/s) and reaching altitudes of .

The Martlets evolved through this period, growing in size and sophistication. As Bull later put it:

The Martlet's electronics triggered the release of the chemical markers at a set altitude. This left a sort of "smoke trail" through the atmosphere that could be used to measure winds aloft by visual means. The chemical was typically triethylaluminum, which burns on contact with air. Loading the shells was a dangerous job that required special handling. The Martlet were also used to release chaff
Chaff

Chaff is the inedible, dry, scaly protective casings of the seeds of cereal grain, or similar fine, dry, scaly plant material such as scaly parts of flowers, or finely chopped straw....
 instead of chemicals, allowing tracking via radar. Some shots used additional electronics to measure the magnetic field. Similar firings in support of the upper atmosphere research were made using 5" and 7" guns at Highwater, Alaska, and Wallops Island Virginia. By the time the program ran down, about 1,000 firings had taken place, and the data collected during HARP represents half of all the upper-atmospheric data to this day.

The Martlet-2 was only a stepping-stone on the way to Bull's real interest, a gun-launched rocket that could reach outerspace. The gun had been thouroughly tested and was well past intercontinental ranges, but needed modifying. In the spring of 1963 HARP started experimenting with the Martlet-3, a 7" diameter "full bore" projectile designed to test the basic problems of launching a solid-fuel artillery shell from guns. Solid shell fuel has the consistency of soft rubber and is cut into a pattern that is open in the middle, so on firing the "grain" would tend to collapse into the cavity. This problem was solved by filling the cavity with zinc bromide, a liquid that had a density close to the fuel which prevented the collapse and was then drained out after firing to allow the shell to light. Test firings began at the US Ballistic Research Laboratory
Ballistic Research Laboratory

The United States Army Ballistic Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland was the center for the army's research efforts in interior, exterior, and terminal ballistics and vulnerability/lethality analysis....
 in Aberdeen using a bored-out 175 mm gun from the M107
M107 Self-Propelled Gun

The M107 175mm self-propelled gun was part of a family of self-propelled artillery that also included the M110 howitzer....
. This program proved the basic concept and shots of the Martlet-3 reached altitudes of .

The ultimate goal of the program was the Martlet-4, a three-stage 16.4" rocket that would be fired from a lengthened gun at Barbados and would reach orbit. In 1964 Donald Mordell was able to convince the Canadian government of the value of the HARP project as a low-cost method for Canada to enter the space-launch business, and arranged a joint Canadian-US funding program of $3 million a year for three years, with the Canadians supplying $2.5 million of that. Another 16.4" gun, mounted horizontally, was being tested at the Highwater range, and was extended by cutting the breech off the end of one gun and welding it to the end of another to produce a new gun over 110 ft long. The extension allowed the powder to be contained for a longer period of time, slowing down the acceleration and loads on the airframe, while also offering higher overall performance. Once the system had been tested at Highwater, a second barrel was shipped to Foul Bay, attached and strengthened with external bracing to allow it to be raised up from the horizontal. This gun was extensively tested in 1965 and 66.

The orbital project faced a constant race with its own budget. Originally guaranteed three years of funding, the money was handled by the DRB, who was less than impressed with its former "star" going on to greater things while their own funding was being dramatically cut. Although the money was allocated for 1964, the DRB managed to delay delivery for ten months, forcing McGill to cover salaries in the interim. These problems did not go unnoticed in the US Army, and in order to ensure that firings would not be interrupted by problems on the Canadian side, a third double-length gun was built at the Yuma Proving Grounds to continue the high-altitude measurements. On November 18, 1966 this gun launched a Martlet-2 to 180 km, a world record that still stands today.

By 1967 it was becoming clear that the Martlet-4 would not be ready by the time the funding ran out in 1968. An effort started to build a simplified version, the GLO-1A (Gun-launched Orbiter, Version 1A), based on the Martlet-2G. Continued budget pressures, changing public attitudes towards military affairs, negative reviews from the press and other researchers in Canada and a change of government all conspired to ensure that Canadian funding was not renewed in 1967. Bull had been working on a last-ditch effort to launch a Canadian flag into orbit in time for the Canadian Centennial
Canadian Centennial

The Canadian Centennial was a year long celebration held in 1967 when Canada celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation. Celebrations occurred throughout the year but culminated on Dominion Day, July 1....
, but nothing ever came of this plan.

Space Research Corporation


Bull returned to his Highwater range, and managed to get HARPs assets transferred to a new company by invoking a clause in the original contract with McGill that required them to return the range to its original natural condition. Faced with hundreds of thousands of dollars in construction costs to wind down a project that could not garner funding, McGill was left with little choice but to trade Bull for title to the Highwater equipment. Setting up a new company, Space Research Corporation
Space Research Corporation

Space Research Corporation was a corporation founded by Gerald Bull, after the budget for his research at Project HARP for the United States and Canada federal governments was cut in 1967, in order to commercialize the technology of long-range artillery....
 (SRC), Bull became an international artillery consultant. Incorporated in both Quebec and Vermont
Vermont

Vermont is a U.S. state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States United States. The state ranks 43rd by land area, , and 45th by total area....
, a number of contracts from both the Canadian and US military research arms helped the company get started.

At SRC Bull continued the development of his high-velocity artillery, adapting the HARP smoothbore into a new "reverse rifled" design where the lands of a conventional rifling were replaced by grooves cut into the barrel to make a slightly larger gun also capable of firing existing ammunition. Normally artillery shells are sealed into the rifling by a driving band
Driving band

The driving band or rotating band is part of an artillery Shell_ , a band of soft metal near the middle of the shell, typically made of gilding metal, copper or lead....
 of soft metal like copper
Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity....
, which demands that the shell be shaped so that it balances at its widest point, where the band is located. This is not ideal for ballistics, especially supersonically where a higher fineness ratio
Fineness ratio

Fineness ratio is a term used in aerospace engineering to describe the overall shape of a streamlined body. Specifically, it is the ratio of the length of a body to its maximum width; shapes that are "short and fat" have a low fineness ratio, those that are "long and skinny" have high fineness ratios....
 is desirable. Bull solved this problem by using an additional set of nub "fins" near the front of the shell to keep it centered in the barrel, allowing the driving band to be greatly reduced in size, and located wherever was convenient. Re-shaping the shell for better supersonic performance provided dramatically improved range and accuracy, up to double in both cases, when compared to a similar gun using older-style ammunition. He called the new shell design "Extended Range, Full Bore" (ERFB).

Starting in 1975, Bull designed a new gun based on the common US 155/39 M109 howitzer
M109 howitzer

The M109 is an United States-made Self-propelled artillery 155 mm howitzer, first introduced in the early 1960s. It has been continually upgraded and improved to today's current version, the M109A6 Paladin, currently only used by the United States Army....
, extending it slightly to 45 calibres through modifications that could be applied to existing weapons, calling the resulting weapon the GC-45 howitzer
GC-45 howitzer

The GC-45 is a 155 mm howitzer designed by Gerald Bull's Space Research Corporation in the 1970s. Versions were produced by a number of companies during the 1980s, notably in Austria and South Africa....
. Bull also purchased the base bleed
Base bleed

Base bleed is a system used on some artillery shells to increase their range, typically by about 30%.Most of the drag on an artillery shell comes from the nose of the shell, as it pushes the air out of its way at supersonic speeds....
 technology being developed in Belgium, which allowed for further improvements in range. With ERFB round the GC-45 could routinely place rounds into 10 m circles at ranges up to 30 km, extending this to 38 km with some loss in accuracy. The gun offered ranges far in excess of even the longest-ranged heavy artillery in a gun only slightly larger than common medium-weight guns.

SRC's first major sales success was the sale of 50,000 ERFB shells to Israel in 1973 for use in American-supplied artillery pieces. The Israelis successfully used a number of 175 mm M107 guns in the counter-battery role against its Soviet counterpart, the 130 mm towed field gun M1954 (M-46)
130 mm towed field gun M1954 (M-46)

The 130 mm towed field gun M1954, also known as the M-46 is a manually loaded, towed 130 mm artillery piece, manufactured in the Soviet Union in the 1950s....
, but the introduction of long range rockets fired from Lebanon
Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of Lebanon or Lebanese Republic , is a country in Western Asia, on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea....
 outranged them. The ERFB shells extended the range of this already formidable weapon to as much as 50 km, allowing the guns to counter-battery even the longest range rockets. Bull was rewarded for success of this program by a Congressional bill, sponsored by Senator Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwater

Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senate from Arizona and the History of the United States Republican Party's nominee for President of the United States in the U.S....
, making him retroactively eligible for a decade of American citizenship and high-level American nuclear security clearance.

Another early success for SRC was the sale of 30,000 artillery shells, gun barrels, and plans for the GC-45 to Armscor
Armscor (South Africa)

Armscor , the Armaments Corporation of South Africa is a South African government-supported weapon-producing Conglomerate that was officially established in 1968 primarily as response to the international sanctions by the United Nations against South Africa that began in 1963 and were formalized in 1967....
 of Pretoria
Pretoria

Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three Capital , serving as the Executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislature capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital....
, South Africa
South Africa

The Republic of South Africa, also known by Official names of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa....
. The South African army was using older weapons, notably the British WWII Ordnance QF 25 pounder
Ordnance QF 25 pounder

The Ordnance QF 25 pounder , or more simply, 25-pounder or 25-pdr, was introduced into service just before World War II, during which it served as the major United Kingdom field gun/howitzer....
, that were completely outperformed by Soviet-supplied artillery during the Operation Savannah
Operation Savannah (Angola)

Operation Savannah was the name given to the South African Defence Force's 1975?1976 covert intervention in the Angolan War of Independence....
 in 1975-1976, which completely shut down their offensive and resulted in a rout. In order to ensure this would not happen again, they went shopping for longer-ranged weapons and were put in touch with SRC by CIA personnel, their partners in Operation Savannah. Armscor designed a new mounting to allow increased powder loads and added an auxiliary power unit
Auxiliary power unit

An auxiliary power unit is a device on a vehicle whose purpose is to provide energy for functions other than propulsion. Different types of APU are found on aircraft, as well as on some large ground vehicles....
 to improve its capabilities in the field by helping automate various tasks and move the gun short distances. The resulting G5 howitzer
G5 howitzer

The G5 is a South African towed howitzer of 155 mm calibre manufactured by Denel. Initial versions of it were based on the 45-calibre GC-45 howitzer designed by Gerald Bull, though it has gone through many modifications and variations to reach its latest model: the 52-calibre G5-2000....
 was vital to the South African campaign against Cuban military forces in Angola
Angola

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordering Namibia to the south, Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, and Zambia to the east, and with a west coast along the Atlantic Ocean....
, allowing them to stop any attempt to conduct military actions of any size in the border area.

With the change of administration in 1977, the US's policies on arms sales changed dramatically. Combatting communism was no longer the only consideration, and the human rights
Human rights

Human rights refer to the "basic rights and freedom to which all humans are entitled." Examples of rights and freedoms which have come to be commonly thought of as human rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of speech, and equality before the law; and social, cultural and economic rights, i...
 record of the South African apartheid system became a major concern. Enforcing rules that had always been "on the books", Bull was arrested for illegal arms dealing in violation of the UN arms embargo
United Nations Security Council Resolution 418

United Nations Security Council Resolution 418, passed on 4 November 1977, imposed a mandatory arms embargo against apartheid South Africa. This resolution differed from the earlier United Nations Security Council Resolution 282, which was only voluntary....
. Expecting a slap on the wrist, Bull was surprised to find himself spending six months in a US jail in 1980. On his return to Quebec
Quebec

Quebec , in French language, Qu?bec , is a Provinces and territories of Canada in the Central Canada and Eastern Canada regions of Canada....
 he was sued and fined $55,000 for arms dealing.

European Poudreries Réunies de Belgique

Bull left Canada and moved to Brussels
Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Capital-Region, is the de facto capital city of the European Union and the largest urban area in Belgium....
, where a subsidiary of SRC called European Poudreries Réunies de Belgique was based. Bull continued working with the ERFB ammunition design, developing a range of munitions that could be fired from existing weapons. A number of companies designed upgrades to work with older weapons, like the M114 155 mm howitzer
M114 155 mm howitzer

The M114 155 mm howitzer was a towed howitzer used by the United States Army. It was first produced in 1942 as a medium artillery piece under the designation of 155 mm Howitzer M1....
, combining a new barrel from the M109 with Bull's ERFB ammunition to produce an improved weapon for relatively low cost.

Bull also continued working with the GC-45 design, and soon secured work with The People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China

The People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the List of countries by population in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately a fifth of the world's population....
, and then Iraq
Iraq

Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. He designed two artillery pieces for the Iraqis: the 155 mm Al-Majnoonan, an updated version of the G5, and a similar set of adaptations applied to the 203 mm US M110 howitzer
M110 howitzer

The 8 inch Self-Propelled Howitzer M110 was the largest available Self-propelled artillery howitzer in the United States Army's inventory. It was deployed in division artillery in general support battalions and in separate corps- and Army-level battalions....
 to produce the 210 mm Al-Fao
Al-Fao

Al-Fao is a self-propelled artillery system designed for the Iraqi Regular Army by the late Canada weapons engineer, Gerald Bull. It is one of the world's most powerful artillery pieces, with a calibre of 210 mm and a range of 56,000 metres ....
 with a maximum range of 56 km (35 miles) without base bleed. Although it appears the Al-Fao was not put into production, the Al-Majnoonan started replacing Soviet designs as quickly as they could be delivered. When deliveries could not be made quickly enough, additional barrels were delivered from South Africa.

The guns were built and sold through Austria
Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west....
.

Bull then convinced the Iraqis that they would never be a real power without the capability for space launches. He offered to build a cannon capable of such launches, basically an even larger version of the original HARP design. Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the President of Iraq of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003.A leading member of the revolutionary Ba'ath Party, which espoused secular pan-Arabism, economic modernization, and Arab socialism, Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup that brought the party to long-term power....
 was interested, and work started on "Project Babylon
Project Babylon

Project Babylon was a project allegedly commissioned by the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein during the Iran?Iraq War to build a series of superguns....
".

A smaller 45 meters, 350 mm caliber gun was completed for testing purposes, and Bull then started work on the "real" PC-2 machine, a gun that was 150 meters long, weighed 2100 tonnes, with a bore of one meter (39 inches). It was to be capable of placing a 2000 kilogram projectile into orbit. The Iraqis then told Bull they would only go ahead with the project if he would also help with development of their longer ranged Scud
Scud

Scud is a series of tactical ballistic missiles developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War and exported widely to other countries. The term comes from the NATO reporting name SS-1 Scud which was attached to the missile by Western intelligence agencies....
-based missile project. Bull agreed.

Construction of the individual sections of the new gun started in England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
 at Sheffield Forgemasters
Forgemasters

Sheffield Forgemasters is a heavy engineering firm located in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. The company specialises in the production of large steel castings and forgings, as well as rolls, ingots and bar....
 and Matrix Churchill as well as in Spain
Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
, the Netherlands
Netherlands

The Netherlands is a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands is located in North-West Europe, and bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east....
, and Switzerland
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
.

Assassination

Bull concurrently worked on the Scud
Scud

Scud is a series of tactical ballistic missiles developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War and exported widely to other countries. The term comes from the NATO reporting name SS-1 Scud which was attached to the missile by Western intelligence agencies....
 project, making calculations for the new nose-cone needed for the higher re-entry speeds and temperatures the missile would face. At this point someone started "warning" him to stop working on the missiles. Over a period of a few months his apartment was broken into several times but nothing was stolen. He nevertheless continued to work on the project, and in March 1990 he was shot five times in the back of the neck while opening the door of his apartment in Brussels.

The most common theories
Conspiracy theory

A conspiracy theory alleges a coordinated group is, or was, secretly working to commit illegal or wrongful actions, including attempting to hide the existence of the group and its activities....
 are that either the Israeli Mossad
Mossad

The Mossad is the national intelligence agency of Israel. "Mossad" is the Hebrew word for institute or institution. Membership in the Mossad is very prestigious in Israeli society, and the organization is considered to rank among the most effective intelligence agencies in the world....
 was responsible (due to the small-caliber, sound-suppressed
Suppressor

A suppressor, sound suppressor, sound moderator, or silencer is a device either attached to or part of the Gun barrel of a firearm to reduce the amount of noise and muzzle flash generated by firing the weapon....
 pistol used), or that it was Iran
Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
ian Intelligence VEVAK. Both Mossad and VEVAK had the capacity and motive to stop Saddam from acquiring such a weapon. A fictionalized story in the movie Doomsday Gun
Doomsday Gun

Doomsday Gun was a 1994 movie produced by HBO, dramatizing the life of Canadian supergun designer Dr. Gerald Bull and his involvement in Project Babylon, Saddam Hussein's plan to build a supergun with a range of over 500 miles....
 suggests that the Mossad is happy to be blamed, as this scares off others who may try to help enemy regimes. There is also a theory as speculated in the Frederick Forsyth
Frederick Forsyth

Frederick Forsyth, Order of the British Empire is an England author and occasional political commentator. He is best known for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Dogs of War , The Fist of God, Icon , The Veteran , Avenger and recently The Afghan....
 novel The Fist of God
The Fist of God

The Fist of God is a 1994 novel by Frederick Forsyth, mixing known fact with fiction to tell a story of the coalition forces in the Gulf War racing against time to discover the true nature of Saddam Hussein's secret weapon, 'The Fist of God.'...
, that Bull was assassinated by Iraq
Iraq

Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
i agents of the Mukhabarat
Mukhabarat

Mukhabarat is the Arabic language term for intelligence, as in intelligence agency. In the West, the term is sometimes used negatively, connotating repression, often by means of secret police or state terror, in Arab countries....
 under the direct order of the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the President of Iraq of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003.A leading member of the revolutionary Ba'ath Party, which espoused secular pan-Arabism, economic modernization, and Arab socialism, Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup that brought the party to long-term power....
 through the chief of the foreign intelligence wing of the Mukhabarart, Dr. Ismail Ubaidi. The theory suggests that the motive was to prevent Bull from leaking crucial intelligence about Project Babylon
Project Babylon

Project Babylon was a project allegedly commissioned by the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein during the Iran?Iraq War to build a series of superguns....
 to either the Americans or the Israelis. The assassination was only conducted after Bull had outlived his usefulness and had to be disposed of.

Gerald Bull had worked for so many parties in so many critical defence projects that he became an asset and a liability for several powerful groups at the same time.

The supergun project was stopped when its parts were seized by Customs
Her Majesty's Customs and Excise

HM Customs and Excise was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government in the United Kingdom. It was responsible for the collection of Value added tax, Customs Duties, Excise Duties, and other indirect taxes such as Air Passenger Duty, United Kingdom Climate Change Programme, Insurance_Premium_Tax_, Landfill Tax and Aggregates L...
 in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 in November 1990, and most of Bull's staff returned to Canada
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
. The smaller test gun was later broken up after the Gulf War
Gulf War

"Persian Gulf War" and "First Gulf War" redirect here. For other uses, see Persian Gulf War .The Persian Gulf War was a United Nations-authorized military conflict between Iraq and a Coalition of Gulf War from 34 nations commissioned with expelling Iraqi forces from Kuwait after Iraq's Invasion of Kuwait of Kuwait in August 1990....
.

See also

  • The Fist of God
    The Fist of God

    The Fist of God is a 1994 novel by Frederick Forsyth, mixing known fact with fiction to tell a story of the coalition forces in the Gulf War racing against time to discover the true nature of Saddam Hussein's secret weapon, 'The Fist of God.'...
    , a related novel by Frederick Forsyth
    Frederick Forsyth

    Frederick Forsyth, Order of the British Empire is an England author and occasional political commentator. He is best known for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Dogs of War , The Fist of God, Icon , The Veteran , Avenger and recently The Afghan....
  • List of assassinated persons
  • DRE Valcartier
  • Science and technology in Canada
    Science and technology in Canada

    Science and technology in Canada consists of three distinct but closely related phenomena:* the diffusion of technology in Canada,* scientific research in Canada...


External links

  • (Caribbean OPC 2003,Angela Cole, Barbados)
  • -(PBS Frontline, February 12, 1991)
  • - excellent multimedia history from the CBC archives.
  • .
  • (a TV movie) at the Internet Movie Database
    Internet Movie Database

    The Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to film, actors, Television program, production crew personnel, video games, and most recently, fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media....
  • - article by Bruce Sterling
    Bruce Sterling

    Michael Bruce Sterling is an American science fiction author, best known for his novels and his seminal work on the Mirrorshades anthology, which helped define the cyberpunk genre....
    .