In 1962 a (16") Space Gun was installed on the island of barbados.
It's ultimate aim was to shoot satellite payloads into orbit around the earth.
The desighner Gerald Bull was later killed by Israeli secret service agents, while working on a doomsday gun for Iraq known as the Babylon gun.
www.astronautix.com...
www.iraqwatch.org...
www.fas.org...
In mid-1965 the HARP project was in full swing and the big 16-inch gun on Barbados was making regular firings. 5-inch and 7-inch HARP guns were
conducting launches in places as diverse as Alaska, Wallops Island Virginia, Highwater, Quebec and Barbados. Progress on all technical programs was
advancing significantly, despite funding problems. Volumes of scientific data were being collected from all aspects of the program.
The new Highwater site was also progressing by leaps and bounds. The expansive 2000-acre site was becoming a major operational centre for HARP with
small gun firings occurring regularly. Throughout the year plans for installing a new 16-inch gun in Highwater were progressing smoothly. By November
the gun was in place and test firings commenced soon after. This gun only fired horizontally with vehicles impacting into a mineshaft dug into a hill
on the far side of the valley some 1000 meters down range. The Highwater gun was primarily used to test the performance of vehicles inside of the gun
and in free flight during the critical muzzle exit and sabot separation phases.
The 16-inch Highwater gun was soon extended in a similar manner to the Barbados gun although instead of massive weldments to maintain alignment it
used a series of steel supports, looking somewhat like a suspension bridge, were used to hold the barrel at its relatively low angles. Later this gun
would be given a third extension stretching it out to L126 calibre’s, or an incredible 176 feet long! The Highwater gun still holds the record as the
longest big bore artillery piece in the world
The Full Story Here:
www.astronautix.com...
www.fas.org...
[Edited on 7-9-2003 by quaneeri]