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 large gun to fire the models to high altitudes and speeds. Started in 1961, it was created largely due to lobbying from Gerald Bull, a controversial but highly successful ballistics engineer who went on to head the project. His ultimate goal was to fire a payload into space from a gun, and many have suggested that the ballistics study was offered up simply to gain funding. The project received just over 10 million dollars during its lifetime. A pre-9/11 view of The Pentagon, looking east with the Potomac River and Washington Monument in the distance. ... The Department of National Defence, frequently referred to by its acronym DND, is the department within the government of Canada with responsibility for Canadas military, the Canadian Armed Forces. ... Ballistics (gr. ... A re-entry vehicle is a lander vehicle used in space missions to safely re-enter Earths atmosphere. ... A Redstone rocket, part of the Mercury program A rocket is a vehicle, missile or aircraft which obtains thrust by the reaction to the ejection of fast moving exhaust gas from within a rocket engine. ... Look up Gun in Wiktionary, the free dictionary A gun is a mechanical device that fires projectiles at high velocity, using a propellant such as gun powder or compressed air. ... Altitude is the elevation of an object from a known level or datum, called zero level. ... Speed (symbol: v) is the rate of motion, or equivalently the rate of change of position, expressed as distance d moved per unit of time t. ... 1961 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Gerald Vincent Bull (March 8, 1928 - March 22, 1990) was an engineer who many consider to have developed long range artillery beyond what anyone else has accomplished. ... An engineer is someone who practices the engineering profession; a professional practitioner of engineering; someone who uses scientific knowledge to solve practical problems and produce goods for society. ...

The project was based on a flight range in Barbados, from which shells were fired eastward toward the Atlantic. Using an old US Navy 16 inch (406 mm) 50 caliber gun (20 m), later extended to 100 calibers (40 m), the team was able to fire a 180 kg slug at 3600 m/s, reaching an altitude of 180 kilometers. While the speed was not nearly enough to reach orbit, it was a major achievement at much lower cost than most ballistic missile programs. A shell is a projectile, which, as opposed to a bullet, is not solid but contains an explosive or other filling, though modern usage includes large projectiles without a filling. ... The Atlantic Ocean is Earths second-largest ocean, covering approximately one-fifth of its surface. ... The United States Navy (USN) is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for naval operations. ... The word caliber (American English) or calibre (British English) designates the interior diameter of a tube or the exterior diameter of a wire or rod. ... The international prototype, made of platinum-iridium, which is kept at the BIPM under conditions specified by the 1st CGPM in 1889. ... Metre per second (U.S. spelling: meter per second) is an SI derived unit of both speed (scalar) and velocity (vector), defined by distance in metres divided by time in seconds. ...

The program was cancelled shortly after this. Most of the criticism was focused upon Bull and whether a ballistically-fired payload could ever reach orbit, although the politics of the Vietnam War and soured Canadian/US relations played their role as well. In cargo transport, payload is the valuable contents of the vehicle. ... The Vietnam War or Second Indochina War (Vietnamese Chiến Tranh Chống Mỹ Cứu Nước, War Against the Americans to Save the Nation) was a conflict between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN, or North Vietnam), allied with the National Liberation Front (NLF, or Viet Cong) against...

While it is questionable whether projectiles could ever be directly fired as a single stage from Earth without the use of exotic materials in construction, HARP demonstrated an efficient way to launch a projectile part of the way. Additionally, it showed that electronics could survive such a launch, making it possible that a sabot-fired rocket could launch once it reaches its peak altitude, and continue the rest of the way into orbit. A projectile is any object sent through the air by the application of some force. ... Earth, also known as the Earth, Terra, and (mostly in the 19th century) Tellus, is the third planet outward from the Sun. ... Two digital voltmeters The field of electronics is the study and use of electronic devices that operate by controlling the flow of electrons or other electrically charged particles in devices such as thermionic valves and semiconductors. ... A sabot (French: shoe) is a device used in a firearm or cannon to fire a projectile or bullet that is smaller than the bore diameter. ...

A second incarnation of the HARP project, Project Babylon, also conducted by Gerald Bull, was done in Iraq under the patronage of Saddam Hussein. The March 1990 assassination of Bull (allegedly at the hands of the Mossad) in his Brussels apartment, and the 1991 Gulf War ended the project partway through development. Project Babylon was a project commissioned by the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War to build a series of superguns, with Gerald Bull supplying the designs for the guns. ... Saddam Hussein Saddām Hussein ʻAbd al-Majīd al-Tikrīt, spelled Husayn or Hussain; (Arabic صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتي; born April 28, 1937 ) was President of Iraq from 1979 until his removal by coalition forces during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. ... Official seal of the Mossad Ha-Mossad le-Modiin ule-Tafkidim Meyuhadim (Hebrew: המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים, Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks) is an Israeli intelligence agency, commonly referred to as Mossad. ... 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... C Company, 1st Battalion, The Staffordshire Regiment, 1st UK Armoured Division The 1991 Gulf War was a conflict between Iraq and a coalition force of 34 nations mandated by the United Nations and led by the United States. ...

Martlet Projectiles

There were several models of test projectile fired or designed during Project HARP.

• Martlet 1 - The first test projectile. 16 inch (40.6 cm) gun bore, projectile weighed 450 lb, was 6.6 inches in diameter and 70 inches long. Only four manufactured. Two were fired on Jan 21 and Feb 1, 1962.
• Martlet 2 - Primary 16 inch test projectiles. Around 200 fired, of various weights and configurations. Most carried research payloads studying upper atmosphere and near space conditions. About half the weight of the typical Martlet 2 series projectile was in the pusher plate and centering sabot.
• Martlet 2G - A more advanced projectile, which had nearly all of its total 160 kg weight in the projectile. The Martlet 2G utilized a sabot system very similar to modern antitank Kinetic energy penetrators.
• Martlet 2G-1 - A proposed space launch vehicle variant of Martlet 2G, which had a solid rocket motor in the projectile. The followon 2G-2 would have had a second rocket motor and been able to place the second stage in orbit, though with little or no payload.
• Martlet 3 - A series of more advanced rocket propelled projectiles in the HARP project.
• Martlet 3A - Intended to be a 16 inch diameter, gun fired rocket projectile able to reach 500 km altitude. The rocket motors' solid propellant deformed during firing and the design was never successful, despite several test firings.
• Martlet 3B - Similar to the Martlet 3A, using steel casings and attempting to solve some of the 3A model's problems. Unsuccessful.
• Martlet 3D - This model was going to be a suborbital test rocket, using the first stage of the Martlet 4 solid rocket version. As Martlet 4 was never built, no Martlet 3Ds were produced either.
• Martlet 3E - A suborbital solid rocket designed to be fired from a smaller, seven inch cannon used in the HARP project.
• Martlet 4 - Two versions of full scale orbital launch vehicle projectiles were proposed in the Martlet 4 series. The first used three solid rocket motor stages and was planned to orbit about 50 pounds of payload. The second used liquid rocket motors and was planned to have orbited 200 pounds of payload. Both were about 28 feet long and 16 inches in diameter, weighing about 1,300 kilograms at launch. No Martlet 4 vehicles were built; the project halted before the design was completed.

A kinetic energy penetrator, long-rod penetrator, or APFSDS (Armour Piercing Fin Stabilized Discarding Sabot) is a type of ammunition which, like a bullet, does not contain explosives, but uses kinetic energy to penetrate the target. ...

Further reading

• Gerald V. Bull, Charles H. Murphy, Paris Kanonen: The Paris Guns (Wilhelmgeschutze) and Project HARP, E. S. Mittler, Herford, 1988

External links

• Astronautix's very detailed account of the HARP Project
• Detailed information about the Martlet projectile models at Astronautix.com