Post WWII Torpedo Planes?

Douglas AD Skyraider took over both functions in the late 40's.

Bill Shuey

Think you mean the Avenger - the Helldiver was a Dive Bomber.

As for newer aircraft - without thinking too hard how about the S-3 Viking or the P-3 Orion - but I'm not personally aware of any newer dedicated Torpedo Bombers (except the experimental Guardian).

Cheers,

Nigel

The concept of multi-seat torpedo bombers was dropped by the US and UK for single-seat "strike fighters" -- the US had the AD Skyraider and the short-lived AM Mauler, and the British had the Blackburn Firebrand.

The Skyraider could carry torpedoes and did use them in combat -- look up "Carlson's Canyon" and Korea and you should find the story of how they used them to take out the flood gates of the Supung Dam.

The Grumman Guardian was NOT experimental but rather a pair of multi-seat antisub aircraft with one (the S version) carrying the weapons and the other (the W version) the search gear and radar. They were replaced by the S2F Tracker, which led to the S-3 Viking. The P-3 was a long range patrol aircraft and not really in the same class.

Cookie Sewell

"and the British had the Blackburn Firebrand"

What about the pretty ugly but interesting all the same, Fairey Gannet?

Cheers,

Nigel

And the tank dood dazzles us with his knowledge!!

Also Hawker Sea Fury and Westland Wyvern.

(kim)

the Helldiver never carried a torp??

Nigel Heather wrote:

Them as well but the Gannet was a three seater!

Cheers,

Nigel

Tho it was only a prototype, the USSR had the Tu-91. I think some of their other bombers, Il-28 & such, carried torps.

Actually the Soviets converted a number of A-20G Havoc ("Boston" to them) to torpedo bombers and used them as such postwar. In point of fact, the US Navy shot one down in September 1950 and killed the crew of three, causing a big stink with the Soviets (who ignored the fact that it was heading towards a carrier group in a combat zone...)

Forgot the Gannet, mea culpa.

Cookie Sewell

"Nigel Heather" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@pipex.net:

I suspect the notion of torpedo bombers was pretty much vapor after WWII. The idea of long, slow, level approaches in the era of radar controlled, rapid fire AA 5" (wasn't there even a 6" turret the the US Navy developed for a heavier weight shell/greater range?) and Hellcat/Corsair/Bearcat/burgeoning jet interceptors made the entire exercise a little dicey.

The aircraft cited S-3. P-3 were patrol ASW, not intended to emulate Torpedo

1. Torpedo bombers was a concept that worked fairly well and successfully inside the narrow time range between aircraft large enough and heavy enough to carry a torpedo and AA countermeasures being to effective.

Frank

B. Apple

And I forgot the Nimrod...more adventures in weird... BA

Yes, it even had a twin jet. I think it was a North American, but forget the designation. Also, the US began to consider combined (multi-mission) designs, like Martin Mauler that would haul torpedos. Don't know weather the Skyraider was set up for torpedos or not.

Guided missiles were fast coming along of course, and any target large enough to require a torpedo was worth enough to commit a few expensive guided missiles to it. So this was the likely reason to downplay torpedos. Aircraft payloads were becoming awesome, so guided missiles and bombs could sink very large vessels.

I think I remember a picture of a Skyraider with a torpedo hanging underneath. Some of the other late-war TB wannabes were the Douglas XTB2D-1, the Grumman XTB2F-1, the Curtiss XBTC-2 & XBT2C-1 and the Kaiser XBTK-1. The only NA types I can find in my sources are the AJ-1 and the XA2J-1. I can't find any mention of torpedoes in their warloads, however.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

If we have expanded the thread to include any aircraft, don't the helicopters have torpedo capability? I thought I have seen footage of them on the sides, being dropped with a parachute? They work with the Orion and another helo that is dipping the sonar.

I'm getting too old. It's been too many years since NJROTC in high school.

Rich

Mad-Modeller wrote: icture of a Skyraider with a torpedo hanging

Wasn't the AJ-1 the Savage? A twin prop bomber? I'm thinking of a twin jet. Ejected the bomb or torpedo out the tail. I think it was intended primarily for bombs, but one writeup said they could carry and launch torpedos too. Was it called the Vigilante or something like that?

Must have been quite a twitch in pitch when the ordnance went out the tail, though probably no worse than the payload leaving the ramp on transports that drop parachute or LAE off tail ramps.

You are thinking of the A-5 (A3J) Vigilante but it was designed as a supersonic nuclear bomber, which is why it originally had a tubular bomb bay that ejected the weapons out the rear (to give it a chance to escape the blast of the nuke.) I don't recall it ever having a torpedo capability though.

The original Monogram Vigi kit from the 1950s had a spring and did shoot a bomb out the back.

Cookie Sewell

There's the Kaman Sea Sprite, the Sikorsky Sea King, the Sikorsky SeaHawk, the Westland/Agusta Merlin, and the Kamov Ka-25 and -27 for starters. Many of them can carry a dipping sonar *and* enough sonobouys and torpedoes to really ruin a submariner's day.