Torpedo
A modern torpedo is a self-propelled guided projectile that operates underwater and is designed to detonate on contact or in proximity to a target. Torpedoes are weapons that may be launched from submarines, surface ships, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, and from unmanned naval mines.
They are also used as parts of other weapons; the Mark 46 torpedo used by the United States becomes the warhead section of the ASROC (Anti-Submarine ROCket) and the Captor mine uses a submerged sensor platform that releases a torpedo when a hostile contact is detected.
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2 History 3 Torpedoes used by the U.S. Navy 4 Torpedoes used by the UK navy 5 Torpedoes used by the Japanese navy 6 See also 7 External links |
The word torpedo comes from the electric ray, one of the fishes of the family Torpedinidae.
In naval usage, the term "torpedo" was first used by Robert Fulton who used it in reference to his Nautilus submarine in 1800.
Notably the term was also used in the American Civil War in the 1860s to refer to tethered naval mines, developed by Matthew F. Maury, a Confederate Admiral (these are what David Farragut was referring to when he ordered his men to "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead").
This use of the word to refer to what are now called mines lasted until World War I, as other torpedoes were developed the term was modified to stationary torpedo and the term mine was also used.
Torpedo Exercise in Plymouth
The first prototypes of a self-propelled torpedo were created by Ivan Lupis-Vukić, a retired Croatian naval engineer who served in the Austro-Hungarian navy. The design was presented to the emperor Franz Joseph in the port city of Rijeka in 1860. Robert Whitehead, an English engineer/entrepreneur, was working in the Trieste port on navy projects, so in 1864 Lupis made a contract with him in order to perfect the invention. This resulted in Minenschiff, the first self-propelling torpedo, officially presented to the imperial naval commission on December 21, 1866.
After the government decided to invest in the invention, Whitehead started the first torpedo factory in Rijeka. In 1870, they improved the devices to travel up to 1,000 yards (914 m) at a speed of up to six knotss, and by 1881 the factory was exporting its torpedoes to ten other countries. The torpedo was powered by compressed air and had a explosive charge of gloxyline or gun-cotton. Whitehead went on to develop more efficient devices, demonstrating torpedoes capable of 18 knots (1876), 24 knots (1886) and finally 30 knots (1890).
In 1877 the British Admiralty paid him ÃÂã15,000 for certain of his developments and he opened a new factory at Portland. The largest Whitehead torpedo was 19 feet (5.8 m) long, 18 inches (457 mm) in diameter and hulled in polished steel or phosphor-bronze, the explosive charge was up to 200 lb (90 kg) of gun-cotton. The air was compressed to around 1,300 lb/in² (9 MPa) and drove two propellers through a three cylinder Brotherhood engine. Considerable effort was taken in trying to ensure the torpedo self-regulated its course and depth.
Blanco Encalada was the first ship sunk in a military action by a self-propelled torpedo, during the Chilean civil war on April 23, 1891. During this time, the torpedo boat invented by John Ericsson gained recognition for its efficiency, and the first torpedo boat destroyers were built to counter it.
Around 1897, Nikola Tesla patented a remote controlled boat and later demonstrate the feasibility of radio-guided torpedoes to the United States military. Radio remote controlled torpedoes remained uninvestigated until the 1960s. During the World War I, torpedoes came to mean self propelled projectiles fired from a ship or submarine. Later, torpedoes were given (homing) guidance systems.
The three major torpedoes in the United States Navy inventory are:
The torpedos used by the Royal Navy include:
The torpedos used by the Imperial Japanese Navy included:
Etymology
History
Torpedoes used by the U.S. Navy
Torpedoes used by the UK navy
Torpedoes used by the Japanese navy
See also
External links