Harp Technology (Part 9)

Harp Technology

(Part 9)

In mid of 1965 the Harp project was in full swing and the big 16-inch gun on Barbados was making regular firings. But the 5-inch and 7-inch Harp guns were conducting launches in places as diverse as Alaska, Wallops Island Virginia, High-water, Quebec and Barbados. And the Progress on all technical programs was advancing meaningfully, which despite funding problems.

And the new High-water site were also succeeding by leaps and bounds. The reserved 2000-acre site were becoming a major operational center for Harp with a small gun firings happening regularly. With throughout the year plans for the installing a new 16-inch gun in High-water are progressing smoothly. In November 1965 the gun was in his place and test firings inaugurated soon after. And this gun only fired horizontally with the vehicles impacting into a mineshaft excavated into a hill on the far side of the valley some 1000 meters down range. But this High-water gun can be primarily used to test the performance of vehicles inside of the gun and in free flight during the critical muzzle was exit and sabot separation phases.

This 16-inch High-water gun was soon more extended in a similar manner to the Barbados gun although instead of massive elements to maintain alignment and it is used a series of steel supports, looking somewhat like a suspension bridge, they were used to hold the barrel at its relatively low angles. And later this gun would be given a third extension stretching it out to L126 calibers, or an incredible 176 feet long! This High-water gun was still holds the record as the longest big bore artillery piece in the world.

And nowhere in the world, at that or any time before or since, has there been such a huge gun based development program as this in private hands. The University of McGill reveled in the respect of this world-class facility.

And even with the great technical advances made by Harp in 1965 that all was not well behind the scenes. But Back in Ottawa the bureaucracy continued to criticize at Harp. And the promised Canadian funding was again delayed for 10 months into the financial year. But with McGill once again providing advances to Harp to maintain there operations, to development projects such as the Marlette 4 were delayed. But in the starting US Army was beginning to be drawn more and more into the conflict in Vietnam. The Army's attention, and their funding, was being diverted elsewhere.

1966

In the starting of 1966 the enemies of the Harp Program were do hard work at the back of the scenes they are trying to sabotage this. The Rumours indicated that the Canadian government was preparing to pull the plug on the program. J.L. Orr have sent a uncomplimentary report to Ottawa which unfairly criticizing the Harp project. Then He suggested that the Harp funding can be allocated to the other programs.

And one of the true heroes of the Harp Project at that time he was Donald Mordell. And Gerry Bull gets most of the credit for the technical successes of HARP. But if it was not for Donald Mordell's extensive lobbying, the project would have surrendered to administrative pressures far earlier. And he is increased a constant defense of HARP in private, in government circles, and in the press. So much of the political goodwill that HARP received at the time was due to his hard-working effort.

Mordell's had convinced many of the great potential of HARP and the project shared many supporters in the press and in the public. And one of the chief arguments of the media supporters of HARP was that it was cancellation would once again default a major project's technology to the Americans. And as with the Avro Arrow fighter, Canada would lose world class, home grown, technology.

In 1966 progressed as well as they could be expected with high altitude launches proceeding throughout the first half of the year. But however the bureaucratic stress on the HARP program was taking its toll. The programs such the Marlette 4 orbital vehicle suffered gravely, particularly when the project was forced to lay off important personnel in April due to funding delays.

So the turmoil on the Canadian side of the border can not escape HARP's American partners. In expectation of the future problems that was decided that a 16-inch gun site was needed on American soil. So this would make the US involvement completely independent from the Canadian bureaucracy and McGill's Barbados launch site.

And the third and the final 16-inch gun of the HARP program was installed at the Yuma proving grounds in Arizona. So this gun was practically identical to the Barbados gun, that although it did sport several improvements as a result of lessons learned during the construction of the Barbados gun system. But Unfortunately the Yuma gun can enjoyed only a short operational life with only a few launch series being conducted there. And the Yuma Gun's sole claim to recognition was that on the November 18, 1966 it lofted a Marlette 2 vehicle to a world record altitude of 180 km, which is still stands today.

And the extensive efforts of the HARP staff to defend the program from its criticizers were slowly overcome by the bureaucratic pressure being exerted against it. But in November of 1966 the Canadian Government announced that there would be no further Canadian funding for the HARP Project after the June 30, 1967. HARP's critics can be demanded that the project's funding should be cancelled immediately. And they railed against even this small extension. So it was decided that the HARP would be sacrificed. And in its place the funding would go to the new Allouette satellite, that the Fort Churchill, Manitoba, rocket range and the new Black Brant sounding rocket.

In these few extra months of life it did not come without a price. And as a last ditch effort to save the program a desperate and devious plan was shaded.
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(To Be Countinue....)