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The Helmover torpedo or Helmore projector was a British air-launched, radio-directed torpedo developed in 1944. It was intended for action against enemy shipping but was not brought into military use because of the surrender of the Japanese navy in 1945.
A test of the radio guidance using an unarmed scale model of the torpedo was conducted on Queen Mary Reservoir, Staines, on 11 May 1944. The test was regarded as successful, even though during the proceedings radio control over the device was lost and it holed the Royal Air Force Marine Branch launch conducting the trial. It was found that the range of the radio signal was between 3 and 10 miles.Paterson (1991) p.479 The first test of the complete system took place off the Isle of Wight on 4 February 1945. Although the controlling Mosquito had to fly in a continuous "figure-of-eight" pattern to match its speed with the torpedo, making it difficult to keep sight of the exhaust plume from the torpedo's engine (or its wake when submerged), the test was considered a success and 100 units were ordered.
The propellers were of the contra-rotating type. Air for the engine was drawn in through a hollow mast, long, pivoted upwards from a slot along the top of the torpedo after the unit entered the water. There was an infrared light ("102" in image) at the top of the mast, directed rearwards towards the following aircraft to aid tracking at night. An automatic valve prevented water entry from high waves, upon which air could be briefly drawn from a compressed air tank through a valve ("73" in image). As fuel was used up, seawater was gradually admitted to flexible bags within the hull to retain the required degree of buoyancy. At a distance of about three miles from the target, under direction from the command aircraft, the mast was folded into its slot and the hull was allowed to submerge completely, with air released continuously from the low-pressure tank (this in turn replenished from the high-pressure tank through a pressure regulator) to supply the engine.
Guidance continued from the command aircraft until the target was hit; radio signals could be received down to a depth of . If anti-submarine nets were encountered, an explosive piston was deployed to launch the unit over the obstruction, or it was made to dive beneath them. The war ended before the system could be deployed.
Design
The size of the torpedo was determined by the dimensions of the Lancaster's bomb bay. Length was with a diameter of . Overall weight was , of which was RDX explosive. The torpedo's hull was divided into three sections. The fore section contained the warhead; the mid-section contained the fuel tank, radio receiver and compressed-air tanks; the aft section contained an internal combustion engine and the control gear. There were separate compressed air systems: one at low pressure () to drive the directional and the control surfaces, and one at high pressure () to supply the engine when submerged. To achieve the desired range of at least an internal combustion engine was used. Rolls Royce selected their Meteor for this, partly because it could be assembled from salvaged parts from crashed or otherwise unserviceable Merlin aero engines, (1978). 9780333240168, Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 9780333240168Henry Meadows of Wolverhampton reconfigured the Merlin design by removing the supercharger and replacing the aluminium Wet sump with one of cast iron — "Development", The Centurion Tank, Pat Ware (2013) , . so not using valuable resources on what was intended to be a "one-way" mission.
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