peashooter85:Project HARP,Created in 1961, Project HARP (High Altitude Reaserch Project) was a coope
peashooter85:Project HARP,Created in 1961, Project HARP (High Altitude Reaserch Project) was a cooperative program between the US and Canadian Department of Defense to study the ballistics of rentry vehicles as a part of the space race. For Gerald Bull, a top ballistics engineer who was a founder of the project, it was also theoretically a budget method of getting objects into outer space. he believed that it would be much more cost effective to use large guns in order to propel objects into orbit.The project utilitized a 16inch naval gun that was increased in length and reinforced with a special scaffolding. Based in Barbado’s, the gun was able to fire a 180kg (about 400lb) projectile 112 miles high, a record that still stands today. Unfortunatly the cannon was never able to fire an object into space. At most it could propel an object up to 3,600 meters per second or about 8,000 miles per hour. About 9,000 meters per second are required to propel in object into space. The project was cancelled in 1967 because of budgetary cuts due to the Vietnam War.Gerald Bull continued to work on his goal of firing an object into space. He founded his own company, which also made artillery pieces for the military. In the late 80’s he was hired by Saddam Hussein for Project Babylon, a program to build a super gun for Iraq. Because of his association with Hussein, Bull was assasinated by unknown agents in 1990. -- source link