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Big Gun.
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Project Harp, Barbados. 1962 – 1967. (High Altitude Research Project.)
This was a joint Canadian/American project to investigate the meteorology of the upper atmosphere, and to pursue the possibility of using artillery technology to put small (non-living) payloads into earth orbit. The main ‘mover’ of this project was Dr. Gerald Bull, a Canadian, who theorized that a big enough gun could put small packages into earth orbit. He convinced McGill University to give him tenure (and some funding!) to develop the project. A slightly lesser mover, Dr. Charles Murphy, a US Army Artillery expert, joined the project, (bringing along a few bundles of American cash) because he (and the US Army) was interested in Meteorological conditions in the upper atmosphere.
The US Army believed that they should be the ‘operator’of the US Space program and needed to know “What was going on way up there.” – and in fact, the Army chalked up some early space launch successes, while the Air Force and Navy were plagued with glitches.
The South East coast of Barbados was chosen as the site for the gun, because it was in the same region as the newly developed Cape Canaveral and Wallops Island missile launch complexes, there was plenty of open ocean to shoot at, and it was certainly warmer than Canada in winter!
Two 16” diameter Naval guns were welded end-to-end to produce a gun about 140’ long, weighing about 400 tons. The muzzle of this gun could be raised to almost vertical, so that the projectile would be sent as high as possible into the atmosphere. On occasion, heights over 90 miles above the earth were reached. On days when shots were scheduled, the ‘target area’ – a circle about 4 miles in radius, centred about 6 miles offshore – was declared off limits to ships, as was the airspace above.
For meteorological testing and data sampling, the ‘payload’ was an instrument package to measure temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, and a few other things. When the projectile reached its highest point, this package would separate from the projectile, its parachute would deploy, and it would float gently down to earth. It was tracked using Radar, so its location – distance, compass bearing and upward angle – could be recorded, from which upper atmosphere wind direction and speed could be determined at positions all the way down to earth, (along with all the other data that was being collected). All these tests were done with the gun barrel almost vertical, to get the maximum height for the projectiles.
Based on the shape, size and other characteristics of the projectiles that were being developed and used while the meteorological weather project was proceeding, Dr. Bull was designing the vehicle that he would use to send a satellite into orbit. This would require the gun to shoot his specially designed rocket up in the air at an angle less than the ‘almost straight up’ of the weather collecting shots. The rocket was to provide just a little extra boost to reach escape velocity, but more importantly, to be able to steer the satellite into the correct orbit.
Dr. Bull had a very aggressive nature – he ‘got things done’. This was very useful during the late ’50s and early ‘60s when he was trying (mostly successfully) to convince people of the worthiness of his idea, and in building the facility in Barbados. But he did make some enemies in the process, mostly in the political arena, - and when you get right down to it, it is the politicians who control the money! Promised funding was often late, or for a lesser amount that expected, and there was a constant struggle to keep the project afloat.
Dr. Bull had his prototype rocket ready for launch, but his opponents finally got the better of him, and the funding to keep the facility running was refused. Dr. Murphy and the US Army had collected all the data they needed – and had not achieved the hoped-for ‘leader position’ of the US space race, so withdrew their participation and financial support. Dr. Bull looked for support elsewhere within the North American continent to no avail, and the project collapsed. The big gun fell silent in mid-June 1967, having never fired a shot at the lower angle required for the package to reach escape velocity.
Down, but not out, Dr. Bull offered his services to the rest of the world, and was hired by Iraq to build a big gun. Development was well on the way, when someone shot him in the back of the head several times at close range as he was walking home one night. Because this gun would have had the range to reach Israel, Israeli involvement was suspected in his assasination, however this was never proven.
So what has all this got to do with SOFAR?
Despite Dr. Bull’s best efforts, during the life of the gun, the slightly scientific adage of “What goes up must come down” was upheld. And in the case of this gun, a very large projectile would come down into the ocean at a very fast speed. The splash that it made was quite big, and probably noisy. This was the era when tactical missiles with multiple warheads were being developed and tested. Traditionally, to test the accuracy of a missile landing, a sofar bomb was placed in the nose of the missile, which, upon impact with the water, would sink to a predetermined depth and explode. Based on the time taken for the sound to reach various listening stations scattered around the periphery of the Atlantic Ocean, the location of the missile landing, and hence it’s accuracy, could be calculated.
The problem arose with the testing of multiple warhead vehicles, where many sofar bomb explosions were occurring over a short period of time, and sorting out the confusion might produce inconclusive results. So the idea of Project Big Gun was to try to find out just how loud the splash of a big object hitting the ocean at high speed really was, and all the characteristics of this noise. If there was sufficient noise, then the sound could be picked up by sonobuoys placed close to the various warhead landing places, which would hear only the splash in their nearby area, and not the splash from more distant locations, thus reducing the confusion.
So in early June, 1967, Sir Horace set sail one evening from Barbados to take up a position about 10 miles offshore, near the impact location of the big gun’s projectile. There were 2 hydrophones deployed over the side, one only about 15’ below the surface, the other at about 50’, both connected to tape recorders and various bits of electronics.
The fun soon started – we saw the flash, then heard the boom, and several minutes later heard an unusual sound through the hydrophone monitors. There were 4 shots planned for that night, but after the second one, the gun crew called a 10 to 15 minute ‘hold’ because of some problem loading the gun. All this time, we had been slowly drifting into the impact zone. Quick conference between Ham & Clem McCann “If we haul up the hydrophones and move out, you can bet your last dollar they will suddenly fix the problem, fire the shot, and we will miss it. What are the chances if we stay here, that we won’t get hit?” Ham got confirmation from ashore that the shot would be fired within five minutes, so he said “O.K. We stay!” But once we had the recording, the hydrophones were hauled aboard (in record time) and we ‘hauled ass outa there’ to a safe distance to get set for the final shot.
In the haste to re-connect the phones, an error was made, and one of the recorders failed to record anything. So Ham got on the radio to the gunners, and asked to buy another shot. The response was surprisingly positive, almost like they wanted to stay all night and shoot at the stars if we wanted. So we got the final recording, and packed up and headed home. I guess they already knew that the facility was going to close down, and they wanted to have some fun while they could.
Anyway, we got what we wanted, and obviously it worked, because this was the precursor to the SMILS system. (which will eventually have a write-up on this website, when i have a moment!!)
Posted Nov. 2013
I found 'the moment' and there is now a writeup on SMILS!!
Posted Feb. 2014
The US Army believed that they should be the ‘operator’of the US Space program and needed to know “What was going on way up there.” – and in fact, the Army chalked up some early space launch successes, while the Air Force and Navy were plagued with glitches.
The South East coast of Barbados was chosen as the site for the gun, because it was in the same region as the newly developed Cape Canaveral and Wallops Island missile launch complexes, there was plenty of open ocean to shoot at, and it was certainly warmer than Canada in winter!
Two 16” diameter Naval guns were welded end-to-end to produce a gun about 140’ long, weighing about 400 tons. The muzzle of this gun could be raised to almost vertical, so that the projectile would be sent as high as possible into the atmosphere. On occasion, heights over 90 miles above the earth were reached. On days when shots were scheduled, the ‘target area’ – a circle about 4 miles in radius, centred about 6 miles offshore – was declared off limits to ships, as was the airspace above.
For meteorological testing and data sampling, the ‘payload’ was an instrument package to measure temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, and a few other things. When the projectile reached its highest point, this package would separate from the projectile, its parachute would deploy, and it would float gently down to earth. It was tracked using Radar, so its location – distance, compass bearing and upward angle – could be recorded, from which upper atmosphere wind direction and speed could be determined at positions all the way down to earth, (along with all the other data that was being collected). All these tests were done with the gun barrel almost vertical, to get the maximum height for the projectiles.
Based on the shape, size and other characteristics of the projectiles that were being developed and used while the meteorological weather project was proceeding, Dr. Bull was designing the vehicle that he would use to send a satellite into orbit. This would require the gun to shoot his specially designed rocket up in the air at an angle less than the ‘almost straight up’ of the weather collecting shots. The rocket was to provide just a little extra boost to reach escape velocity, but more importantly, to be able to steer the satellite into the correct orbit.
Dr. Bull had a very aggressive nature – he ‘got things done’. This was very useful during the late ’50s and early ‘60s when he was trying (mostly successfully) to convince people of the worthiness of his idea, and in building the facility in Barbados. But he did make some enemies in the process, mostly in the political arena, - and when you get right down to it, it is the politicians who control the money! Promised funding was often late, or for a lesser amount that expected, and there was a constant struggle to keep the project afloat.
Dr. Bull had his prototype rocket ready for launch, but his opponents finally got the better of him, and the funding to keep the facility running was refused. Dr. Murphy and the US Army had collected all the data they needed – and had not achieved the hoped-for ‘leader position’ of the US space race, so withdrew their participation and financial support. Dr. Bull looked for support elsewhere within the North American continent to no avail, and the project collapsed. The big gun fell silent in mid-June 1967, having never fired a shot at the lower angle required for the package to reach escape velocity.
Down, but not out, Dr. Bull offered his services to the rest of the world, and was hired by Iraq to build a big gun. Development was well on the way, when someone shot him in the back of the head several times at close range as he was walking home one night. Because this gun would have had the range to reach Israel, Israeli involvement was suspected in his assasination, however this was never proven.
So what has all this got to do with SOFAR?
Despite Dr. Bull’s best efforts, during the life of the gun, the slightly scientific adage of “What goes up must come down” was upheld. And in the case of this gun, a very large projectile would come down into the ocean at a very fast speed. The splash that it made was quite big, and probably noisy. This was the era when tactical missiles with multiple warheads were being developed and tested. Traditionally, to test the accuracy of a missile landing, a sofar bomb was placed in the nose of the missile, which, upon impact with the water, would sink to a predetermined depth and explode. Based on the time taken for the sound to reach various listening stations scattered around the periphery of the Atlantic Ocean, the location of the missile landing, and hence it’s accuracy, could be calculated.
The problem arose with the testing of multiple warhead vehicles, where many sofar bomb explosions were occurring over a short period of time, and sorting out the confusion might produce inconclusive results. So the idea of Project Big Gun was to try to find out just how loud the splash of a big object hitting the ocean at high speed really was, and all the characteristics of this noise. If there was sufficient noise, then the sound could be picked up by sonobuoys placed close to the various warhead landing places, which would hear only the splash in their nearby area, and not the splash from more distant locations, thus reducing the confusion.
So in early June, 1967, Sir Horace set sail one evening from Barbados to take up a position about 10 miles offshore, near the impact location of the big gun’s projectile. There were 2 hydrophones deployed over the side, one only about 15’ below the surface, the other at about 50’, both connected to tape recorders and various bits of electronics.
The fun soon started – we saw the flash, then heard the boom, and several minutes later heard an unusual sound through the hydrophone monitors. There were 4 shots planned for that night, but after the second one, the gun crew called a 10 to 15 minute ‘hold’ because of some problem loading the gun. All this time, we had been slowly drifting into the impact zone. Quick conference between Ham & Clem McCann “If we haul up the hydrophones and move out, you can bet your last dollar they will suddenly fix the problem, fire the shot, and we will miss it. What are the chances if we stay here, that we won’t get hit?” Ham got confirmation from ashore that the shot would be fired within five minutes, so he said “O.K. We stay!” But once we had the recording, the hydrophones were hauled aboard (in record time) and we ‘hauled ass outa there’ to a safe distance to get set for the final shot.
In the haste to re-connect the phones, an error was made, and one of the recorders failed to record anything. So Ham got on the radio to the gunners, and asked to buy another shot. The response was surprisingly positive, almost like they wanted to stay all night and shoot at the stars if we wanted. So we got the final recording, and packed up and headed home. I guess they already knew that the facility was going to close down, and they wanted to have some fun while they could.
Anyway, we got what we wanted, and obviously it worked, because this was the precursor to the SMILS system. (which will eventually have a write-up on this website, when i have a moment!!)
Posted Nov. 2013
I found 'the moment' and there is now a writeup on SMILS!!
Posted Feb. 2014