Harp Technology (Part 8)

Harp Technology

(Part 8)

This was to be a pattern of administrative disruption that would plague the program to its end.

The major factor that was to shape the upcoming operations of the Harp was that the US Army was losing its battle to overshadow space operations. And that the result they were soon forbidden to conduct launches above 100 km. which caused in restrictions in the HARP funding formula. Successively all funding for HARP's orbital program can be to come from the Canadian portion of the funding only.

The funding concerns slowed many of HARP's research and development programs. They even though that they proceeded as smoothly as events authorized, in many aspects of the project, including the orbital program, suffered unnecessarily. And much of the Harp research at this time can be focused on fundamental research and development of this project. They even though constrained, so they can much  learned about the interactions of the Harp gun systems and their vehicles.

And one of the most considerable events of the year was the opening of the High-water test range. That was recognized early in the program that it would be advantageous to have a second launch site near McGill University where basic research can be easily conducted. The Ideas could be then tested immediately without the need to travel all the way to Barbados. And soon for this a suitable site was found near the Canadian-US border, which just happened to be owned by Bull's extended family.

And the High-water test range managed quickly became as important to Harp as the Barbados launch site and the second 16-inch gun system was installed. And the High-water gun was used for horizontal test flights only and could not be raised higher then 10 degrees. And the 16-inch horizontal gun range was nearly 1000 m long. They can allow new vehicles and systems to be tested under gun loads and in free flight while it was being monitored by a myriad of instruments. Because this range was also used for testing smaller gun systems and launch vehicles.

But the High-water test site also had the distinction of being the only inland high altitude flight range in Canada. It was not long after the High-water site which opened that high altitude test flights with the 5-inch BRL guns starting. And these flights carried payloads to height above sea level of over 70 km and they focused on measuring upper atmospheric conditions.

The workshops of the High-water range has became the project's primary construction facility. So the experimental components and vehicles could be produced and tested at the High-water in short order. But it is notable that the inconstancy of the HARP program's funding required a level of inventiveness infrequently seen in a world-class space program. So much of the credit for the project's technical achievements was due to the resourcefulness and proficiency of HARP's engineers and craftsmen.

In 1964 also they saw the first attempts to improve the overall performance of the 16-inch gun system. So the primary mechanical method selected to improve the performance of the 16-inch gun system that was to lengthen the barrel. And in the few years earlier BRL had lengthened a standard military gun barrel by welding a second section of barrel with the muzzle of the first. And the tests of this 5-inch gun established a higher muzzle velocity for a given vehicle. And this was due to the simple fact that the longer barrel allowed that the propellant gasses to push on the projectile for a longer time period of time, resulting in a higher velocity at muzzle exit. This result is in a corresponding increase in the maximum altitude of a given vehicle can achieved. And this exact same concept was to be applied to the 16-inch gun on Barbados.

So the first attempt at spreading the 16-inch gun was made in the September of the 1964 when a 10 caliber’s extension has been added to this gun. And to install this extension a flange was first welded onto the muzzle of the 16-inch gun barrel. So then a bracket was welded several feet down from the muzzle to allow for the attachment of stiffening bars. The barrel extension was equipped with its own flange and has a hardening bar bracket about 2-3 the way up its length. This extension was installed by bolting the two flanges together and then attaching the stiffening bars to both brackets. Because the stiffening bars were adjustable to allow an accurate barrel alignment to be maintained.

So this technique can proved itself with corresponding increases in velocity and altitude which being recorded during test flights. And that was not a surprise that this improvised extension did not last long. In the early of December, on the eleventh test has been shot, but the extension failed. And still this experiment proved that it was practical to extend a gun of this size. So plans were laid for a new postponement that would nearly double the size of the 16-inch gun to 86 caliber’s, or an enormous 120 feet long.

When  year start with the postponement of the 16-inch Barbados huge gun. And the first task was to enlarge the gun pit to accommodate with this larger gun and it is associate equipment. With that accomplished a permanent barrel extension, made by modifying a second 16-inch gun barrel, That was joined onto the nose of the existing gun.

At the 120 feet long and nearly 100 tons it was recognized that without additional support that the new gun was no hope of maintaining a precision bore alignment when elevated to vertical for firing. So the Sum of 25 tons of elements were added to the two-barrel assembly to stiffen it. And eight adaptable drawbars can be also installed so that the gun would be aligned at any angle of elevation. And this postponement made this 16-inch Barbados gun the largest defense operational artillery piece in the world at that time.
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(To Be Countinue....)