Vertol Versatility (BV-107/CH-46)
And earlier with the H-21/V-44
And earlier with the H-21/V-44
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Little known / experimental aircraft
- Thread starter Randy Daytona
- Start date
Aircraft-dropped antiship torpedoes were deemed to have great potential in the early days of naval aviation, but with the end of World War II came the end of torpedo attacks against surface ships. The 1930s Douglas TBD Devastator -- the first USN monoplane torpedo bomber -- faced disaster in the early 1942 battles, but Grumman and Vought both flew prototype torpedo bombers in late 1941. Grumman's design -- the TBF Avenger -- became one of the mainstays of carrier aviation through the war and into the 1950s, albeit in carrier-based ASW, AEW or COD form. Grumman turned production of the Avenger over to GM's Eastern Aircraft (as the TBM) to concentrate on fighter production.
Vought's XTBU-1 Sea Wolf had superior power from a Pratt & Whitney R-2800 which gave it better performance than the TBF. Like Grumman, Vought turned over production in order to concentrate on F4U Corsair fighter production. A 50 mph speed advantage over the TBF prompted the Navy to place an order for 1,000 aircraft in 1942. Production was turned over to Consolidated-Vultee at a converted Mack truck factory in Allentown, Pennsylvania as the TBY.
In contrast to the TBF, the TBY suffered delay after delay, and it was August of 1944 before the first TBY-2 flew. Production of 180 TBY-2s continued into 1945 before the Sea Wolf was cancelled due to the pending end of hostilities. Most production aircraft went to NAS Quonset Point RI and the only TorpRon to be assigned TBY-2s was VT-154, which was redesignated VT-155 in August 1945. When the war ended, the TBYs were withdrawn from squadron use. Shortly thereafter they were scrapped.
Vought's XTBU-1 Sea Wolf had superior power from a Pratt & Whitney R-2800 which gave it better performance than the TBF. Like Grumman, Vought turned over production in order to concentrate on F4U Corsair fighter production. A 50 mph speed advantage over the TBF prompted the Navy to place an order for 1,000 aircraft in 1942. Production was turned over to Consolidated-Vultee at a converted Mack truck factory in Allentown, Pennsylvania as the TBY.
In contrast to the TBF, the TBY suffered delay after delay, and it was August of 1944 before the first TBY-2 flew. Production of 180 TBY-2s continued into 1945 before the Sea Wolf was cancelled due to the pending end of hostilities. Most production aircraft went to NAS Quonset Point RI and the only TorpRon to be assigned TBY-2s was VT-154, which was redesignated VT-155 in August 1945. When the war ended, the TBYs were withdrawn from squadron use. Shortly thereafter they were scrapped.
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The MK 46 and MK 46 SW were pretty much ASW only. The MK 50 introduced a host of new capabilities ranging from changes to the warhead to search logic. There were also additional attack configurations available in the software that could be programmed on the fly. The MK 54 inherited much of the software capability from the MK 50, albeit with considerable growing pains initially, while retaining the MK 46 physical design.
I remember that being a plot point in Tom Clancy's Debt of Honor, with the Japanese using ship-launched ASW torpedoes to hit US carriers, always wondered about the feasibility of that.
If the MK 46 was ever to be used for surface attack the War Hoover would have been the likely vehicle. I never heard a thing about that capability in the MK 46, and it certainly wasn't a tactic VS crews trained for. In the S3B there were better options for surface vessels.
Air dropped torps had a rather low hit rate in WWII and that was followed by the rapid rise of anti-ship missiles, so you don’t hear of their use in ASuW much anymore although I guess it could be done. I imagine getting within range would be a sporty piece of work.
I never made it that far in the book series, but as good as Clancy was on a lot of things, he swung and missed on a lot of other things. He never could decide if the helicopter in Red Storm Rising was a Bravo or a Foxtrot (I believe he called it a Foxtrot).
That said, could a MK-50 hit a carrier? Yes. Was it designed to do so? No.