What was the fastest ship during WWII? I am led to believe it was a German prototype torpedo hydrofoil but it was top secret and very hard to find info on it.
From www.german-navy.de, the fastest designed hydrofoil had both propeller and turbojet propulsion, capable of 65 knots. However it, and all the other hydrofoil craft, were never built. They're also so darned small that you'd need a microscope and tweezers just to find the on/off switch. The fastest ship in Big Gun (and indeed, the fastest non-classified destroyer in the world, to this day) is the French Le Fantasque. These "destroyer leaders" were capable of 46+ knots on a calm day, and could still exceed 40 knots even in average Atlantic conditions. To this day, no other destroyer in the world has ever met or exceeded this speed record (except in classified US Navy experiments, I'll bet).
I don't think anyone ever exceeded that speed in a DD; the 1970's and 80's vintage Pegasus class PHMs did like 50kts foilborne... Not in our timeframe, but it'd be cool to see one on the water Of course the weight is like a pound in 1/144...
Well she was not the fastest, 32 knts, but early for her time, 1915. Worlds first hovercraft. Visit this site
I must say it would be really neat to see a scale hydrofoil made, there were actually prototypes constructed and tested, but the problem lies in where to find the plans, and where to get a good set of tweezers and a magnifying glass J. Another fast ship would be the Vosper Private Venture Boat, constructed for the Royal navy, it could go 48 knots. It carried Churchill and Eisenhower to review the fleet for the invasion at Normandy. It’s a very small craft though, and would end up being a novelty boat too.
The ship that made that run was the Le terrible. according to conways her terrible handling at speed gave rise to the name. Her engines were replaced w/ less powerful engines after that run. they settled on 38 knots and left the class at that. Just some FYI stuff I dug up on them.
I believe the Russian G-5 series XI and XI Mod torpedo boats may be the fastest at 54 and 56 knts. The destroyer leader Tashkent made over 44 knts without the main guns but slowed to 39-42 depending on the source. Le Fantasque and Tashkent speeds are impressive given the size of those ships. RiverRaider
