April 1944 Radio-Craft
[Table
of Contents]
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics.
See articles from Radio-Craft,
published 1929 - 1953. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged.
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Hugo Gernsback, ever the prolific author on futuristic technology
of the wireless nature, proposes here (c1944) a new form of sea-faring
weapon that would project an practically unstoppable assault on
enemy ships: a high speed, remote controlled torpedo. After being
launched from the safety of a location far out of range of enemy
fire, a human controller in an airborne platform
(i.e., an airplane) would, using navigation
advice provided by spotter aircraft (forward
air control, in modern terms), steer the explosive craft
over potentially long distances to direct hits on battleships, destroyers,
landing craft, patrol boats, etc. Fortunately for all involved
(well at least for
Allied nations), the war would only last another year
and a half by the time this concept was published so it did not
come to fruition in time to test. That would have to wait for the
next war -
Korea, a mere five years after the end of World War II.
Radio Motor-Torpedoes
By Hugo Gernsback
The
present war has shown that large capital ships rarely fight it out
with other capital ships. The huge monster battleships are usually
held in reserve, wherever possible for the balance of sea-power;
they engage the shores of the enemy rarely. If they do, they must
make sure that there is a sufficient air umbrella to protect them
from enemy aircraft.
No longer are large battleships safe near the enemy shore. The
sinking of the two English battleships - The Prince of Wales and
the Repulse - proved this sufficiently off the coast of Malaya.
These two battleships, not having an aircraft umbrella, were quickly
sunk by Japanese torpedo planes. Likewise, the Italian capital ships,
when still under the Axis rule, stayed safely in their harbors and
did not venture forth to give battle to the English and American
Navies.
Air power has changed naval tactics considerably, and even if
one country has an overwhelming superiority in naval equipment,
this does not make for an automatic or certain victory, as would
have been the case before the advent of air power. Today, when one
naval unit attacks another, a handful of airplanes equipped with
torpedoes can raise fearful havoc with the opponent's fleet. For
this reason, it is safe to predict that future decisive naval battles
will be fought without the two fleets even glimpsing each other.
This has already been shown by our own engagements in the South
Pacific with parts of the Japanese fleet, and the tendency will
increase from now on. Whenever we are attacking a Japanese fleet,
it will be from a safe distance anywhere from 100 to 150 miles away.
Our Air Force will bear the brunt of the preliminary fighting. We
will try to sink or damage as many of the Japanese naval units as
we possibly can from the air, before our capital ships close in
for the kill.
Long distance torpedoes, which are combined with a type of motorboat
craft and which are controlled by radio from airplanes, form the
substance of this article.
These radio super-torpedoes have enough fuel to travel over a
distance of several hundred miles in the open sea. Their speed is
sufficiently great and the radio control is such that they they
become difficult targets for the enemy.
The present day aerial torpedo, launched from an airplane against
an enemy vessel is a formidable weapon, but if the opposing force
possesses sufficient air-power - that is, fighting planes - it can
then down the torpedo plane or planes, so that the latter never
get a chance to come near the enemy fleet.
We need, therefore, something better, and the means which are
described here seem to fill that need.
As is well known, the ordinary torpedo usually is powered by
compressed air. It only runs for a few thousand yards at the most,
then if it does not strike its target, it automatically sinks before
it is captured by the enemy, or does damage to its own fleet. What
then is needed is a long distance torpedo which can travel, if necessary,
100 miles towards the enemy, then if no strike is made, it can return
to its own fleet with, full safety to the latter. For this purpose,
we require not an ordinary torpedo, but rather a sea-going motor
speed-boat combined with a torpedo as shown in our illustrations.
In the forward part of the boat is the war-head carrying several
thousand pounds of high explosives, similar to those in regulation
torpedoes. The device therefore is nothing but a super-torpedo,
which instead of using compressed air (or electric batteries, as
some types now use) has powerful, standard motorboat engines. There
is also sufficient fuel aboard so that the craft can run up to a'
distance of 200 miles, if necessary.

One observer-pilot may handle the necessary controls
to keep two or more torpedoes accurately on their way to
the distant target.
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Like a regulation torpedo, this motor-torpedo carries no one
aboard the craft. But here, the similarity ends. The usual torpedo
is launched on its course and then by means of its gyroscope and
other electric devices, it speeds toward the enemy craft which it
usually sinks, or heavily damages, on impact with it. The radio-controlled
motor-torpedo also has its share of automatic devices, but, most
important, its radio "brain" which does the steering has the latest
possible refinements, so that it not only can be made to veer from
right to left, but it can suddenly swerve almost at right angles,
cut figure eights, run around in circles, etc. In practice this
radio super-torpedo would work out somewhat as follows:
The motor torpedoes are carried on any suitable naval craft of
the fleet. When ready for battle, they are lowered into the water,
the engine is started and, after short preliminary tests, the craft
is sent on its way in the general direction of the enemy. At the
moment the motor-torpedo is started, an airplane which has on board
the radio control which is to guide it, also takes off from its
carrier, or is catapulted from its mother battleship. The torpedo
is painted in such. a color that it is easily visible from aloft.
Note that this particular torpedo does not submerge entirely as
does the regulation type. There is, however, very little of its
upper structure visible and its runs almost awash. Most prominent
is its antenna over which it receives the impulses from the guiding
control plane.
The motor torpedoes are carried on any suitable naval craft of
the fleet. When ready for battle, they are lowered into the water,
the engine is started and, after short preliminary tests, the craft
is sent on its way in the general direction of the enemy. At the
moment the motor-torpedo is started, an airplane which has on board
the radio control which is to guide it, also takes off from its
carrier, or is catapulted from its mother battleship. The torpedo
is painted in such a color that it is easily visible from aloft.
Note that this particular torpedo does not submerge entirely as
does the regulation type. There is, however, very little of its
upper structure visible and it runs almost awash. Most prominent
is its antenna over which it receives the impulses from the guiding
control plane.
The radio control operator on board the radio-control airplane has
in front of him a keyboard and the other radio transmission devices
making it comparatively simple to steer the radio motor-torpedo
from above. These radio controlled war engines are fast craft, funning
over 40 miles per hour, even in a rough sea. For the time being,
enemy is nowhere visible. But in the meanwhile, our reconnaissance
airplanes have already reported the general position of the enemy
fleet. The radio-control airplane therefore knows the exact direction
and he will now speed the radio motor-torpedo in that direction
until the enemy fleet becomes visible.
I should mention here that it is quite feasible for one radio-control
plane to direct more than one radio motor-torpedo. As many as three
in a group can thus be guided by a single plane. The observer, anywhere
from 5,000 to 20,000 feet up, can follow the course of the several
torpedoes without too great difficulty. If the weather does not
permit it, he will have to come down, so that with his binoculars
he can actually follow the craft's course. He will be greatly aided
in this because the torpedoes make quite a visible wake in the water,
which helps him in locating them.
Automatic or semi-automatic apparatus may assist in the control
and guidance of these super-torpedoes, making it unnecessary for
the observer to concentrate all his attention on one. There is some
reason to believe that some kind of automatic guiding apparatus
is already in use on German aerial radio rockets. (See Radio-Craft,
February 1944, page 267, for a note on certain features of these
rockets.)
From here on it becomes a battle between the control airplane
and the enemy's air fleet. Naturally the enemy will do all in its
power to down the control plane, if he can do so. Furthermore the
radio-control plane, being the driving brain of the torpedoes, will
be sought out by the enemy - if he can find it. For that reason,
it is advisable for practical purposes to employ a number of planes.
The enemy therefore cannot guess which of the planes is the guiding
plane. As all of the planes are fighter planes, the enemy will not
find it too easy to single out the one plane he most wants to down.
It will be of little use for the enemy to try and bomb the motor-torpedoes,
for several reasons. In the first place they travel at to high a
speed. Secondly, being very small targets, it will be practically
impossible to make a bomb-hit on them. But now let us suppose that
we have out-maneuvered the attacking enemy airplanes. It is by no
means necessary for the control airplane to get right over the enemy
fleet. There is no such intention. By now our planes, including
the control plane, have risen to a great height and the radio torpedoes
are steered on their course. Remember, they travel under their own
power. Our radio control airplane may actually still be miles away
from the enemy fleet. Thus it does not get within the range of the
enemy's anti-aircraft fire, or anywhere near it. If now the enemy
tries maneuvering to evade the motor-torpedoes, our little craft
can do likewise, only much faster, and no matter how fast the enemy
tries to turn, the motor-torpedoes can do it quicker, because they
are so much smaller. The radio operator aloft can then steer each
torpedo into the final run where it must hit its target. The control
operator can even guide the torpedoes around the fleet and attack
the enemy from the rear.
The objection will be made that the enemy will be certain to
bring into play his full gunfire directed toward any torpedo when
it comes within gun range and try to blow it up before it can strike
one of his ships. This is quite true, but consider that the motor-torpedo
runs at high speed and therefore makes a most difficult target.
The radio control operator aloft can further safeguard it by running
it in a zigzag course. This again makes a hit much more difficult
for the enemy's guns, and the chances for the motor-torpedo to strike
its target will therefore be all the greater.
That an occasional gun hit will be made against one of the torpedoes,
and blow it up before it gets near a ship or transport, is a foregone
conclusion. Not every torpedo can possibly hope to find its mark
but note that each of the radio-control planes can guide up to three
motor-torpedoes without too much difficulty. It should also be realized
that we will not attack the enemy just with three torpedoes alone.
We may attack with a dozen or more, at .the same time by using a
number of radio-control planes, each operating on a different wave
length, for its own flock of torpedoes. All this is possible and
feasible today, with means well known in the art.
As I have pointed out in my former articles* it is almost impossible
for an enemy to "jam" a radio-controlled weapon today. Therefore
this means of beating the motor-torpedo is immediately ruled out.
If all runs well for us, we therefore will be in a position to
secure a number of sure strikes by means of these radio-controlled
torpedoes and sink or otherwise damage the enemy fleet and probably
cripple a good many units.
There are a number of other uses for these radio motor-torpedoes,
particularly for night warfare, against harbor installations, etc.,
which for security reasons cannot be divulged in this article.
The idea of radio controlled naval craft is by no means a new
idea. During World War I, the English Navy successfully piloted
a radio-controlled ship into the harbor of of Zeebrügge (Belgium),
used by the Germans at that time as a submarine base. This particular
craft had no one on board and was guided to its destination purely
by radio into Zeebrügge harbor, where it was blown up and sunk.
This effectively bottled up the German submarines and their outlet
to the sea for many months.
*The Radio Glider Bomb, Radio-Craft November,
1943. Radio Pilot Mine Destroyers, Radio-Craft, December, 1943.
Posted December 7, 2014 |