indeed, thats why they should have some sort of reel in system, perhaps a very weak spring reel like on a tape measure, weak enough for the torp to pull it out but strong enough to pull the wires back in, but it all seems so complicated than just a one shot air powered torp
Don't forget the limitations of electric, screw-driven propulsion. It's not very powerful on even a 1:72 scale torpedo. If you're talking about a prop that's 1/4" in diameter, it will not be able to overcome a spring and still move faster than its intended target. I've got a few resin-cast 3/8" props. They are absurdly small, and provide very little thrust. Personally, I would be thrilled to get 12 inches range out of a submarine torpedo. Big Gun weaponry already does a pretty good job of representing the different ranges of combat. While none of our ships can accurately fire to linear scale ranges, we still get the correct effective differences in range. Big, heavy battleship guns have relatively long effective range, being useful even beyond 6 feet, and lighter 7/32" guns are slightly shorter in range. Smaller 3/16" and .177" popguns work best at closer ranges, and torpedoes (especially submarine torpedoes) are best used at very close range. That sounds about right for every historical period we cover. The only problem is that current submarine torpedoes require physical contact with the target before firing. As a Big Gun skipper who's very interested in submarines, I am also very interested in extending the range of aforementioned submarine torpedoes to something that does not require bumping the target in order to sink it. Speaking of extending the range of submarine torpedoes, here's an idea. The biggest reason why submarine torpedoes have such a short range is because they're shooting through water, which rapidly saps energy from the projectiles. Current solutions have revolved around finding some method to keep the projectile's energy up while travelling through the water, or on some clockwork contraption to deliver the damage of a torpedo despite lower velocity. What if, rather than trying to power up the torpedo, we got rid of the water? It seems to me that if you could replace several inches of water in the torpedoes' path with air, you could extend the torpedoes' effective range by at least that amount. The simplest method to do this is with an extra MJV-2 cannon, that fires a "blank" from beneath the main torpedo tubes, a split-second before the main tubes fire. Time it right, and the bubbles from the blank will displace several inches of water from the real torpedoes' path. Obviously, this will only displace a few inches of water, so I'm wondering if anyone has ideas for extending the water-displacement effect further.
a zero piont gravity field generator would work, but seriously i dont know, although this doesnt answer the question of getting more water displacement, why not have the torps on the top of the sub like on a rail or catapult, but you would have to surface in order to get them out of the water to get the effect of water displacement, but if you do this you may as well have a sma....fast gun, cannon mounted there instead with a one shot bb in it, dont know were the co2 system would go though,
How to get rid of the water? Supercavitating torpedoes, of course. Instead of the gas jet from a scale torp exiting from the rear, eject the gas from the front the same way the shkval does.
just an idea i had, dont know if its been thought of before, to lazy to go through every page on this topic the motor, is one of those tiny ones out of a 3ch mirco helicopter, like the one in the picture a vew posts back
The motor is WHAT!? with sticky tape?!?!? Unfortunately, supercavitating requires a LOT of thrust to counter the thrust of the gas generator in the nose, hence the rocket motor on the Shkval that blew the nose off of Kursk. For the destroyers, I'm leaning towards either spring power or a simple accumulator for CO2. The torp I'm looking at right now is a 1/4" dia plastic rod. Lightweight so it'll accelerate fast and have maybe 8" of range. I think Karl's right about current Big Gun methods accurately representing torps (for our purposes). I believe it's possible to get an electrically-powered torp, I'm not sure that a scale prop will sustain enough speed to punch through 1/8" balsa, which leads to the clockwork warhead again. Maybe a tiny reactor using powdered lithium to generate steam... STEAM ROCKET {no, not seriously suggesting this.}
:blink:ahem...... my bad, all fixed now, now off i go for another misspelt adventure, captain spelling man, AWAY!
I was gonna say, my cat always runs faster for an hour after we take his temperature, but I'm not sure motors work that way LOL! I had thought of a simpler way to activate the motor using a small tab on the side of the torp that is held in while the torp is in the tube, but the restrictions based on tiny props remain
My next thought for propulsion would be to have a ground up Alka-Seltzer tablet stuffed inside the tube, and a restrictor nozzel at the stern. That would limit the range of the torp, and make a nice torpedo trail in the water. I may have to try this to see how far and fast it will go. I can aslo picture that a ship armed with these torps being sunk before it has a chance to launch them. . .
If it gets sunk prior to launching the torps, at least the Alkaseltzer will produce a handy stream of bubbles to find the ship with...
I would figure, if the alka-seltzer is used as propellant, that the torpedoes would fire if sunk. Or, at the very least, pressurize the system so the torpedoes want to fire if given the chance. Not a good situation for whoever tries to recover the wreck. Still, an interesting experiment. It may be possible to safe the system, somehow.
Been a little too busy with my "Honey Do" list to spend any time working on this. But I have been wondering just how much propulsion alka-seltzer could provide? And for what distance? I can picture the torpedo , just sitting there, bubbling away and not moving an inch! I think that Coke and Mentos would produce more thrust than alka-seltzer. But then, Coke and Mentos would not fit inside of a 144 scale torpedo.
Last night I had a revelation! I do believe that I have found a way to make 144 scale torpedoes a reality! They are simple, cheap, reloadable, recoverable and reusable! I do not have the time right now to post the details.
I'm planning on testing plastic gas-fired torps for short-range evil deeds. I'm going to use the plastic thermometer covers that we have in the clinic and see how far they can carry the force, maybe experiment with weighting the tip a bit to conserve momentum. I don't expect these to do a lot of belows, though... but they'd look the business! and they'd definately poke a good-sized hole
I'd certainly like to hear more, especially given my affliction with such an affection for such small ships.
I have been too busy with trying to build it! I need to find out if the alka-seltzer can produce enough thrust to depress the actuator. The actuator rod releases the rubber band powered piston that pushes a sphere into the hull of a ship. I will post more details later. If it works, I can see building dozens of these torpedos!
