One of the most fascinating topics in ballistics would have to be superguns. These are giant cannon intended to hurl ordnance to far away places, competing with surface-to-surface missiles.
These superguns have appeared throughout history. In 1457, a giant cannon made in Mons, Belgium was presented to King James II of Scotland by the Duke of Burgundy. Known as Mons Meg, it could hurl cannon balls over two miles.
A century ago, Jules Verne wrote an entertaining book about a bored gun club who builds a cannon to fire some of its members to the moon. Hmm, this gives me an idea...
In WWI, the Germans unveiled the Paris Gun. The Germans fired on Paris from over 75 miles away. French citizens collaborating with the Germans directed the cannon fire via telephone. Initially the French had no clue, thinking the explosions to be an accident of Paris's gas lines.
Those clever Germans were at it again in WWII with a gunpowder-fired, compressed-air boosted, supergun that shelled England. Looking more akin to a small town's sewer system, this monstrosity was built into the face of a sloped earth surface.
In the late 1950's and early 1960's, the guru of superguns, the late G. V. Bull, designed guns that fired probes into space for the U.S., Canada and Great Britain. Bull's superguns of this period were so successful that they spawned conspiracy theories that they were for shooting down UFO's! Using basic engineering principles Bull designed artillery and shells that could outrange anybody else's guns. Sadly, he went astray and designed for the Communist Chinese and Iraq. His Iraq superguns brought his name to the public's attention.
His Iraq superguns fired shells 0.3 meters and 1.0 meter in diameter. The 0.3m gun was fired on several occasions. The 1.0m gun could have put WMD warheads on other continents! (Some of the people who taught me mechanical engineering as it relates to ballistics were involved in the U.S. analysis of these guns.)
The fundamental problems with superguns have been heat and friction, they make a lot of it. Superguns wear out their bores so fast that the shells of previous superguns usually had to be sequential in diameter, each one slightly larger in diameter than the previous shell. So great was the wear that German superguns required relining of the barrels every 20 shots. Initial analyses of Bull's superguns were pessimistic. However, I disagree. Bull had overcome many of the wear issues. His designs were brilliant. Ultimately superguns cannot operate alone, they need air and ground protection. The lack of mobility would have eventually doomed his superguns; their usefullness lasting only until the first airstrike.
Currently NASA is designing a supergun to launch spacecraft. Maybe Jules Verne gets the last laugh after all.
These superguns have appeared throughout history. In 1457, a giant cannon made in Mons, Belgium was presented to King James II of Scotland by the Duke of Burgundy. Known as Mons Meg, it could hurl cannon balls over two miles.
A century ago, Jules Verne wrote an entertaining book about a bored gun club who builds a cannon to fire some of its members to the moon. Hmm, this gives me an idea...
In WWI, the Germans unveiled the Paris Gun. The Germans fired on Paris from over 75 miles away. French citizens collaborating with the Germans directed the cannon fire via telephone. Initially the French had no clue, thinking the explosions to be an accident of Paris's gas lines.
Those clever Germans were at it again in WWII with a gunpowder-fired, compressed-air boosted, supergun that shelled England. Looking more akin to a small town's sewer system, this monstrosity was built into the face of a sloped earth surface.
In the late 1950's and early 1960's, the guru of superguns, the late G. V. Bull, designed guns that fired probes into space for the U.S., Canada and Great Britain. Bull's superguns of this period were so successful that they spawned conspiracy theories that they were for shooting down UFO's! Using basic engineering principles Bull designed artillery and shells that could outrange anybody else's guns. Sadly, he went astray and designed for the Communist Chinese and Iraq. His Iraq superguns brought his name to the public's attention.
His Iraq superguns fired shells 0.3 meters and 1.0 meter in diameter. The 0.3m gun was fired on several occasions. The 1.0m gun could have put WMD warheads on other continents! (Some of the people who taught me mechanical engineering as it relates to ballistics were involved in the U.S. analysis of these guns.)
The fundamental problems with superguns have been heat and friction, they make a lot of it. Superguns wear out their bores so fast that the shells of previous superguns usually had to be sequential in diameter, each one slightly larger in diameter than the previous shell. So great was the wear that German superguns required relining of the barrels every 20 shots. Initial analyses of Bull's superguns were pessimistic. However, I disagree. Bull had overcome many of the wear issues. His designs were brilliant. Ultimately superguns cannot operate alone, they need air and ground protection. The lack of mobility would have eventually doomed his superguns; their usefullness lasting only until the first airstrike.
Currently NASA is designing a supergun to launch spacecraft. Maybe Jules Verne gets the last laugh after all.
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