Wasn't for manned flight obviously, but that was the gist of what later became Project Babylon, the famous Iraqi "super gun." The original plan of the designer was to fire satellites in to orbit using the gun built up the side of a mountain.
Yes, my dad's office was down the hall from where they had one of the prototype projectiles on display. They had the 16" gun for testing the propellants, etc, just across the border from us. 4 or 5 miles away, it would still rattle the windows when they fired it. My first summer job was working grounds crew at the facility.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
