Although the history of the torpedo is relatively short compared to the entire history of naval development, after its appearance, it gave small ships the possibility of small and broad, and later with the blessing of air vehicles, it further improved the flexibility of use and was widely used during World War II. However, no matter how powerful conventional torpedoes are, they are also limited by size and technology at the time, it is difficult to carry out long-distance precision attacks, and torpedo bombers often need to drop torpedoes against the target's dense anti-aircraft fire, which greatly reduces the combat efficiency of torpedoes, so is there any way to solve this problem? During World War II, the British thought of a solution, which was to use remotely operated Helmover remote torpedoes.
Captain Helmore of the United Kingdom proposed the design of this giant long-range torpedo, he served in the British Air Force during the First World War, worked in the technical field after the war, was an excellent designer, and at the same time had a considerable brain hole.
Captain Helmore's idea was relatively simple, that is, to design and build a giant torpedo similar to a miniature submarine, driven by an internal combustion engine, carrying a huge warhead to fight, and the torpedo needed to be transported by a heavy aircraft, long-range delivery outside the safe distance of the target anti-aircraft gun, and radio remote control guidance until it hit the target.
It is very simple to say, but it is not easy to build such a torpedo, the finished torpedo is 29 feet (about 8.4 meters) long, 38.5 inches (about 0.98 meters) in diameter, it has a telescopic mast, the top of the mast has the air intake required for the operation of the internal combustion engine and the receiving antenna required for remote control, and the mine body sails under the water surface during normal operation, exposing only the mast on the surface of the water.
Powered by a Rolls-Royce Meteor engine, the torpedo produces 700 horsepower and drives a pair of coaxial conjunct propellers that allow the torpedo to reach an even speed of 40 knots, allowing the torpedo to sail both under and above the surface.
The operation of the internal combustion engine can not be separated from the air, but the harsh sea conditions may lift the torpedo out of the water, may also temporarily submerge the air intake, for which Captain Helmore designed a special set of internal compressed air storage equipment, the storage pressure of the three tandem gas tanks is reduced in turn, respectively, 120psi, 60psi and 40psi, and the last and lowest pressure tank will be connected to the engine, output air under conventional air pressure, when its air pressure is insufficient, it will be replenished from the first two gas tanks.
The mast uses a motor to lift, the power comes from an on-board battery, there is a pressure gauge on the mast, it can determine the depth of the torpedo immersion, when the depth is too large, the mast ventilation pipe automatically closes and uses the internal gas tank to supply the engine operation needs, when the torpedo floats can raise the mast and open the snorkel, the exhaust gas of the engine operation is discharged through the exhaust pipe on the back.
The torpedo is equipped with a gyroscope to stabilize the heading, and the radio equipment completes the torpedo attitude adjustment through two motors, which can complete the floating, diving, heading change, speed change, and other functions such as radio detonation, smoke positioning (remote control release of smoke devices on the top of the mast) and so on. The torpedo itself has no ballast compartment, and the depth adjustment relies entirely on the rudder surface adjustment.
Although the size of the torpedo is not small, but it does not carry much fuel, the maximum range when sailing on the surface is limited by the amount of fuel, the maximum range is about 50 miles, and underwater navigation is affected by the capacity of compressed air, the maximum range is only about 3 miles.
The warhead of the torpedo weighs 1 ton, it uses a collision fuze, and it also has the possibility of installing radio remote control detonation equipment, and the huge destructive force can tear apart small and medium-sized surface ships, and large ships with displacement of tens of thousands of tons cannot retreat in the face of such an exaggerated warhead.
Such a huge torpedo requires heavy aircraft to be carried and dropped, and the aircraft also needs to be modified to install radio remote control equipment, because the aircraft is much faster than the torpedo, so after the torpedo needs to fly in a figure 8 above the route, the radio operator through the visual observation.
At the level of technology at that time, this heavy remote control torpedo was very high in technology, and it was a proper black technology, and the British originally planned to name it "Helmore Projector", but because of the fear that the enemy intelligence department would roughly speculate on the function of the weapon through the understanding of Captain Helmore's professional field, it was renamed Helmover in mid-1944.
The prototype torpedo was rescheduled during the experimental testing phase, was mounted on Lancaster bombers and tested, and in 1945 it was planned to produce 100 Helmovers, which would be transported to the Pacific for use against the Japanese Combined Fleet. Another extended design is the carrier-based version, which increases its length to about 15 meters and has a maximum surface range of 150 miles, possibly guided by a shipboard flying mechanism.
Although the Helmover seemed feasible, its technology was still not perfect, and the navigation aircraft was sluggish, and it was a completely active target in front of the fighter, and the development of war no longer required such weapons, so there was no actual mass production and service.