NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Gerald Bull

Gerald Vincent Bull (March 9, 1928 - March 22, 1990) was a Canadian engineer who developed long range artillery. He moved from project to project in his quest to economically launch a satellite using a huge artillery piece. To this end he designed the Project Babylon "supergun" for the Iraqi government. He was shot outside his home in Brussels, Belgium. March 9 is the 68th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (69th in leap years). ... Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... March 22 is the 81st day of the year (82nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ... Artillery with Gabion fortification Cannons on display at Fort Point Continental Artillery crew from the American Revolution Firing of an 18-pound gun, Louis-Philippe Crepin, (1772 â€“ 1851) A forge-welded Iron Cannon in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. ... An Earth observation satellite, ERS 2 For other uses, see Satellite (disambiguation). ... Project Babylon was a project allegedly commissioned by the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War to build a series of superguns, with the Canadian artillery expert Gerald Bull supplying the designs for the guns. ... A SuperGun (or super gun) is a device used to play arcade games in lieu of requiring a full arcade cabinet. ... Nickname: Map showing the location of Brussels in Belgium Coordinates: , Country Belgium Region Brussels-Capital Region Founded 979 Founded (Region) June 18, 1989 Government - Mayor (Municipality) Freddy Thielemans Area - Region 162 kmÂ² (62. ...

Early life and education

Bull was born in North Bay, Ontario, Canada. Originally intending to study medicine, he switched over to engineering. He graduated from the newly founded Institute of Aerophysics (now the Institute for Aerospace Studies) at the University of Toronto in 1951, the youngest Ph.D. in the history of the university (a distinction he still holds today). North Bay ( , time zone EST) is a city in Northeastern Ontario, Canada (2006 population 53,966). ... The University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, or UTIAS (pronounced you-TIE-us), was established in 1949. ... The University of Toronto (U of T) is a coeducational public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ... Year 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Career

Canadian Armament and Research Development Establishment

After graduation Bull took his first job at CARDE, the Canadian Armament and Research Development Establishment, a joint Canadian-British operation (the UK had exported its advanced ballistics technology to safeguard from the Nazis during World War II). In the post-war era, CARDE was researching supersonic flight. Bull suggested the use of a "sabot" type artillery gun to shoot models to supersonic speeds instead of using an expensive supersonic wind tunnel. The system was built and used for research on CARDE's Velvet Glove missile, but when this project was cancelled in 1956 the system fell out of use. Bull then moved on to hyper-sonics research in the field of ballistic missile defense (Anti-ballistic missiles, or "ABMs"), primarily the study of infrared and radar cross sections for detection. The Defence Research Establishment Valcartier, typically shortened to DRE Valcartier or simply DREV, is a major Canadian military research station in Quebec. ... National Socialism redirects here. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki TÅjÅ Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... A United States Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornet in transonic flight. ... An APFSDS separating from its spindle sabot Anti-tank flechette round with its sabot A sabot refers to a device named for a shoe used in a firearm or cannon to fire a projectile or bullet that is smaller than the bore diameter. ... NASA wind tunnel with the model of a plane A wind tunnel is a research tool developed to assist with studying the effects of air moving over or around solid objects. ... The Velvet Glove was a semi-active radar homing air-to-air missile designed by CADRE (today DRD Valcartier) and produced by Canadair starting in 1953. ... It has been suggested that Guided missile be merged into this article or section. ... An anti-ballistic missile (ABM) is a missile designed to counter ballistic missiles. ... Image of two girls in mid-infrared (thermal) light (false-color) Infrared (IR) radiation is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength longer than that of visible light, but shorter than that of radio waves. ... Radar cross section (RCS) is a description of how an object reflects an incident electromagnetic wave. ...

At CARDE he was eventually promoted to head of the Aerophysics department of CARDE in 1958. Year 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

High Altitude Research Program

In 1960 he left CARDE to become a professor at McGill University. He interested the US government in using guns to loft missile components for re-entry research, a task that was otherwise very expensive and time-consuming aboard rockets. With money from the Pentagon and the Canadian Defense Department, he set up Project HARP (for High Altitude Research Program, not to be confused with HAARP) on a large plot of land in Quebec near the US border. There he began working with 5" and 7" artillery pieces. Year 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... McGill University is a publicly funded, co-educational research university located in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. ... Project HARP, short for High Altitude Research Project, was a joint project of The Pentagon and the Canadian Department of National Defence created with the goal of studying ballistics of re-entry vehicles at low cost; whereas most such projects used expensive (and failure-prone) rockets, HARP used a very... Project HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) is a US Air Force, Navy and University of Alaska funded investigation to understand, simulate and control ionospheric processes that might alter the performance of communication and surveillance systems started in 1993 for a proposed twenty year series of experiments. ... Motto: Je me souviens (French: I remember) Capital Quebec City Largest city Montreal Official languages French Government - Lieutenant-Governor Pierre Duchesne - Premier Jean Charest (PLQ) Federal representation in Canadian Parliament - House seats 75 - Senate seats 24 Confederation July 1, 1867 (1st) Area Ranked 2nd - Total 1,542,056 kmÂ² (595...

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 kilogram shell to about 18 miles (30 km). The barrel was bored out to make a smoothbore of 16.7" (42.4 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 kilogram projectile at over 10,000 ft/s (3048 m/s). The barrel of a firearm is the tube, usually metal, through which a controlled explosion is released in order to propel a projectile out of the end at great speed. ... Smoothbore refers to a firearm which does not have a rifled barrel. ...

In 1963 Bull started a series of test-firings using specialized discarding-sabot rounds and finned projectiles named "Martlett" (after the mythical bird without feet on the McGill University crest). 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 an ultimate length of 125 feet (38 m). With this new gun and the added boost of the rocket engine in the Martlett-3, it was expected to be able to reach low Earth orbit. Year 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... A martlet is a mythical bird often used in heraldry. ... A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit in which objects such as satellites are below intermediate circular orbit (ICO) and far below geostationary orbit, but typically around 350 - 1400 km above the Earths surface. ...

Space Research Corporation

Canada cut the funding for the project in 1967. Bull returned to his Quebec range, having managed to get the project's assets transferred to his own company, Space Research Corporation (SRC). With SRC, Bull set himself up as an international artillery consultant. Incorporated in both Quebec and Vermont, a number of contracts from both the Canadian and US military research arms helped the company get started. This article belongs in one or more categories. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... Motto: Je me souviens (French: I remember) Capital Quebec City Largest city Montreal Official languages French Government - Lieutenant-Governor Pierre Duchesne - Premier Jean Charest (PLQ) Federal representation in Canadian Parliament - House seats 75 - Senate seats 24 Confederation July 1, 1867 (1st) Area Ranked 2nd - Total 1,542,056 kmÂ² (595... This article belongs in one or more categories. ... Official language(s) None Capital Montpelier Largest city Burlington Area Ranked 45th - Total 9,620 sq mi (24,923 kmÂ²) - Width 80 miles (130 km) - Length 160 miles (260 km) - % water 3. ...

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 groves cut into the barrel. This allowed the driving band to be removed from the shells, which in turn allowed them to be re-shaped for better supersonic performance. The result was dramatically improved range and accuracy, up to double in both cases, when compared to a similar gun using older-style ammunition. Bull designed a new gun based on the common US 155/39 M109 howitzer, extending it slightly to 45 calibres through modifications that could be applied to existing weapons, calling the resulting weapon the GC-45 howitzer. The driving band is part of an artillery shell, a band of soft metal near the middle of the shell, typically made of copper or lead. ... The M109 is an American-made self-propelled 155 mm howitzer, first introduced in the early 1960s. ... The GC-45 (Gun, Canada, 45-calibre) is a 155 mm howitzer designed by Gerald Bulls Space Research Corporation in the 1970s. ...

An early success for SRC was the sale of 30,000 artillery shells, gun barrels, and plans for the GC-45 to Armscor of Pretoria, South Africa - a deal suggested by CIA personnel, and shipped with the aid of an Israeli company, Israeli Military Industries. Armscor designed a new mounting to allow increased powder loads, and the resulting G5 howitzer was vital to a war South Africa prosecuted with Angola. The Armaments Corporation of South Africa (In Afrikaans: Krygstuig Korporasie van Suid-Afrika, or Krygkor), or Armscor, traces its beginnings to 1948 as the South African States defense manufacturing arm, producing everything from heavy ordnance to armoured vehicles and systems. ... Motto: Praestantia Praevaleat Pretoria (May Pretoria Be Pre-eminent In Excellence) Country South Africa Province Gauteng Established 1855 Area - City 1,644 kmÂ² (634. ... The CIA Seal The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an American intelligence agency, responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the U.S. Government. ... Israeli Military Industries Ltd. ... The G5 is a South African towed howitzer produced by Denel. ...

At this point Bull was arrested for illegal arms dealing with South Africa, in violation of the UN arms embargo after the administration in the US changed. He spent six months in a US jail in 1980. On his return to Quebec he was sued and fined in the amount of $55,000 for arms dealing. It was at around this time that Bull began developing the G5 howitzer (the predecessor of Project Babylon) under an Armscor contract. Gerald Bull lived a few years in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Quebec. The foundation of the U.N. The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate co-operation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress and human rights issues. ... Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ... Motto: Je me souviens (French: I remember) Capital Quebec City Largest city Montreal Official languages French Government - Lieutenant-Governor Pierre Duchesne - Premier Jean Charest (PLQ) Federal representation in Canadian Parliament - House seats 75 - Senate seats 24 Confederation July 1, 1867 (1st) Area Ranked 2nd - Total 1,542,056 kmÂ² (595... The G5 is a South African towed howitzer produced by Denel. ... Project Babylon was a project allegedly commissioned by the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War to build a series of superguns, with the Canadian artillery expert Gerald Bull supplying the designs for the guns. ... Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville is a city in southwestern Quebec, Canada, east of Montreal. ...

European Poudreries Réunies de Belgique

He left Canada and moved to Brussels, where a subsidiary of SRC called European Poudreries Réunies de Belgique was based. He soon secured work with the Chinese, and then Iraq. He designed two artillery pieces for the Iraqis: the 210 mm Al Fao; and the 155 mm Majnoonan, an updated version of the G5. The guns were built and sold through Austria. Nickname: Map showing the location of Brussels in Belgium Coordinates: , Country Belgium Region Brussels-Capital Region Founded 979 Founded (Region) June 18, 1989 Government - Mayor (Municipality) Freddy Thielemans Area - Region 162 kmÂ² (62. ...

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 was interested, and work started on "Project Babylon". Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (28 April 1937 â€“ 30 December 2006) was the fifth President of Iraq and Chairman of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council from 1979 until his overthrow by US forces in 2003. ... Project Babylon was a project allegedly commissioned by the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War to build a series of superguns, with the Canadian artillery expert Gerald Bull supplying the designs for the guns. ...

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-based missile project. Bull, never sensitive to politics, agreed. For other uses, see Scud (disambiguation). ...

Construction of the individual sections of the new gun started in England at Sheffield Forgemasters and Matrix Churchill as well as in Spain, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem - the United Kingdom anthem God Save the Queen is commonly used England() â€“ on the European continent() â€“ in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto) Unified - by Athelstan 927 AD Area - Total 130... Forgemasters is the name of a Steelworks located in Sheffield, South Yorkshire The building dominates the Brightside area of East Sheffield. ...

Assassination

Bull concurrently worked on the Scud 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 his door. For other uses, see Scud (disambiguation). ... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ...

The most common theories are that either; the Israeli Mossad was responsible due to the method used—small-caliber, sound-suppressed pistols—or that it was Iranian Intelligence VEVAK. Neither VEVAK nor Mossad representatives have denied responsibility for his assassination. Others, including Bull's son, believe that the Mossad is taking credit for an act they did not commit to scare off others who may try to help enemy regimes. Most experts and analysts believe that either Israeli Mossad or Iranian VEVAK are the key suspected ones behind the assassination. Both had the capacity and motive to stop Saddam from acquiring such an intimidation/terror weapon. A fictionalized version of this story is in the movie Doomsday Gun. 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.^[1] (Hebrew: ×”×ž×•×¡×“ ×œ×ž×•×“×™×¢×™×Ÿ ×•×œ×ª×¤×§×™×“×™× ×ž×™×•×—×“×™×, The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations), often referred to as The Mossad (meaning The Institute), is Israels intelligence agency and is responsible for intelligence collection, counter-terrorism, covert operations such as paramilitary activities, and the facilitation of aliyah where it is banned. ... The Ministry of Intelligence (وزارت اطلاعات), is the primary intelligence agency of Iran. ...

The supergun project was stopped when its parts were seized by Customs in the United Kingdom in November 1990, and most of Bull's staff returned to Canada. The smaller test gun was later broken up after the Gulf War. Her Majestys Customs and Excise (HMCE) was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government in the UK. It was responsible for the collection of Value added tax (VAT), Customs Duties, Excise Duties, and other indirect taxes such as Air Passenger Duty, Climate Change Levy, Insurance Premium Tax... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ... Combatants United States & US-led Coalition Republic of Iraq Commanders Norman Schwarzkopf Khalid bin Sultan Saddam Hussein Strength 883,863 360,000 Casualties 240 killed in action, 776 wounded, 30 taken prisoner At least 183,000 victims of the Gulf War syndrome Est. ...

Contents

Early life and education

Career

Canadian Armament and Research Development Establishment

High Altitude Research Program

Space Research Corporation

European Poudreries Réunies de Belgique

Assassination

See also

References

External links

Contents

Early life and education GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");

Career

Canadian Armament and Research Development Establishment

High Altitude Research Program

Space Research Corporation

European Poudreries Réunies de Belgique

Assassination

See also

References

External links

Early life and education