Gerald Bull

Gerald Bull was a Canadian engineer who developed long-range artillery. He moved from project to project in his quest to economically launch a satellite using a huge artillery piece, to which end he designed the Project Babylon "supergun" for Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq. Bull was assassinated outside his apartment in Brussels, Belgium, in March 1990. His assassination is believed to be the work of the Mossad over his work for the Iraqi government. No person has ever been charged with the murder of Bull. Bull was born in North Bay, Ontario, Canada, to George L. Toussaint Bull, a solicitor, and Gertrude Isabelle (née LaBrosse) Bull. George Bull was from a family from the Trenton area and had moved to North Bay in 1903 to start a law firm. As a Roman Catholic, LaBrosse would have been forbidden from marrying Bull, an Anglican. George converted to Roman Catholicism on February 20, 1909, and the two married three days later. The couple had 10 children. George Bull was offered the position of King's Counsel in 1928. The family was well off, but the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and ensuing Great Depression dramatically changed their circumstances. Within a year the loans Bull had taken to buy stocks on margin were called in, and the family was forced to move to Toronto to look for work. The next year Gertrude Bull suffered complications while giving birth to her 10th child, Gordon. She died April 1, 1931. George Bull suffered a nervous breakdown and fell into heavy drinking; he left his children in the care of his sister Laura, who fell victim to cancer and died in mid-1934. The next year, banks foreclosed on the family home. The same year, George, at the age of 58, met and married Rose Bleeker. He gave up the children to various relatives: Gerald ending up living with his older sister Bernice. In 1938, Gerald was sent to spend the summer holidays with his uncle and aunt, Philip and Edith LaBrosse (Philip was the younger brother of Gerald's mother, Gertrude). During the Depression, Phil and Edith had won about $175,000 in the Irish Sweepstakes, and were relatively well off. Gerald was sent to an all-boys Jesuit school, Regiopolis College, Kingston, Ontario. Although too young to attend, the school allowed him to start in 1938 and he returned to spend the summers with the LaBrosses. During this time he took up the hobby of building balsa wood airplanes of his own design, and was a member of the school's modelling club. ¹ A gifted academic, Bull began working with the Canadian and US governments researching supergun technology in the 1960s. Initially, engineers used his designs to test supersonic flight without the need for an expensive wind tunnel, by firing projectiles short distances through the barrel of a large gun. But although he would end up spending much of his career in government-funded weapons research designing rockets and guns for warring countries, his personal ambition was to use his designs to launch satellites not missiles. ² In 1961, Bull began working on the High Altitude Research Project (Harp), a joint venture between the US and Canadian governments. Harp was intended to use a large gun to fire research instruments into the upper atmosphere, and eventually into orbit. Bull designed and built several versions of the Harp gun, the largest of which had a 16-inch (410 mm) bore and a barrel length of 40 m (131 ft). The gun was installed at a military base in Barbados, where it fired over 200 test shots between 1962 and 1967. The project achieved a world record altitude of 180 km (110 mi) for a gun-launched projectile, but was cancelled in 1967 due to budget cuts and political pressure. Bull continued to work on Harp-related projects until 1971, when he was arrested and charged with violating the US Arms Export Control Act for smuggling weapons to South Africa. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one year in prison, of which he served six months. ¹ After his release, Bull moved to Brussels, Belgium, where he founded the Space Research Corporation (SRC), a private company that offered research and development services for artillery and aerospace projects. SRC had facilities in both Belgium and Quebec, and attracted contracts from various countries and organizations, such as China, Israel, Iraq, Iran, Chile, NATO, and the US Department of Defense. Bull also resumed his work on supergun technology, and developed several new designs, such as the Martlet series and the GC-45 howitzer. He also proposed a new version of the Harp gun, called Project Babylon, which would have a 1 m (3.3 ft) bore and a 150 m (490 ft) barrel, and would be capable of launching satellites or shells into orbit. ¹ In the 1980s, Bull became involved with the Iraqi arms program, and agreed to develop a supergun for Saddam Hussein's government. He saw this as an opportunity to pursue his dream of space launch, and hoped that Iraq would fund his Project Babylon in exchange for his expertise. He also believed that Iraq had a right to defend itself from external threats, and that a supergun would be a deterrent to war. He supervised the construction of two smaller prototypes of the supergun, called Baby Babylon, which were test-fired in Iraq in 1988. He also oversaw the production of the components for the full-scale Project Babylon, which were manufactured in Europe and shipped to Iraq. However, the project attracted the attention of the intelligence agencies and the media, and several shipments were seized or destroyed by the authorities. ¹ On March 22, 1990, Bull was shot and killed outside his apartment in Brussels by unknown gunmen. The killers left behind his briefcase and wallet, suggesting that robbery was not the motive. The murder was never officially solved, but many believe that it was carried out by the Mossad, the Israeli secret service, who saw Bull's work for Iraq as a threat to their national security. Some also speculate that other parties, such as Iran, Syria, the CIA, or even Iraq, may have been behind the assassination. ¹ Bull's death marked the end of Project Babylon, which was never completed or fired. The Iraqi government claimed that the supergun was intended for scientific research, but the Western powers suspected that it was a weapon of mass destruction, and feared that it could be used to launch nuclear, chemical, or biological warheads. After the Gulf War in 1991, the United Nations ordered the dismantling and destruction of the remains of the project, along with Iraq's other weapons programs. ¹ Bull was a controversial figure, who was admired for his genius and vision, but also criticized for his lack of ethics and his involvement with dictators and rogue states. He was driven by a passion for science and a desire to explore space, but he also had a fascination with power and a disregard for the consequences of his actions. He was a man who dreamed of reaching the stars, but died by the bullet. ¹