Peter Fairbrother wrote in message ...

and a railgun at ISAS (in Japan) gets 7+ km/s too, or so they've said, but
they are a bit reticent. They are also working on a 10 kps+ shaped-charge
"thrower".


Shaped charge explosives capable of producing 10+ km/s metallic jets
have been around since the Second World War.

In fact, Fritz Zwicky can lay claim (albeit tenuous) to having
launched the first artificial object into solar orbit in 1957 (just 12
days after Sputnik 1) by using a Aerobee rocket to launch a shaped
charge to high altitude, then detonating the explosive to send out
jets at 15 km/s. Similar work was also done by Zwicky and Fred
Whipple in 1946, using captured V-2's.

You can read more about this fascinating story he

http://utenti.lycos.it/paoloulivi/aerobee.html
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/pubs/be...1-1-maurer.pdf
http://www.ufx.org/gfb/zwickoralhist.htm
http://www.ufx.org/gfb/artifmet.htm
--
Andrew J. Higgins Mechanical Engineering Dept.
Assistant Professor McGill University
Shock Wave Physics Group Montreal, Quebec CANADA
http://www.mcgill.ca/mecheng/staff/academic/higgins/