Project Babylon
Project Babylon was Iraq's
last, best hope for a space program. Or was it? Engineer Gerald
Bull allegedly thought that the solution to launching satellites was not
rockets, but ballistic launching from a "supergun". The Israelis
could not help but notice, however, that the "supergun" could also lob
shells into their country.
This photo shows a model of
the device, which was never built. It would have had a barrel 150
meters long and a meter in diameter. At the breech the barrel would
be 30 cm thick. In all it would have weighed 2100 tons.
Gerald Bull had worked previously
for several governments, including the US, designing artillery weapons.
In return for funding Project Babylon, the Iraqis wanted Bull to improve
their missile technology. This is believed to be the activity which
led to Bull's assassination in 1990, allegedly at the hands of Israeli
agents.
For more info about Bull and
the supergun, follow
this link.
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