"On This Day" In Engineering History

Ask Buster Crabb what happened...

There's a lot of it about.

Del

The Cold War happened.

It was secret.

Don't tell anybody.

It's all secret.

Stop telling people secrets.

Stop it, Stop it. I beg you stop telling secrets!

Hi,

the Soviet Navy had a torpedo that had an incredible speed around 10 times the speed of western torpedoes.

Maybe this was not available 1968 but a few years later?

This was super secret until the late days of Glasnost initiated by Gorbachev.

The principle was to have a rocket propulsion system and a flat plate on a bar that extended from the nose. The pressure distribution at the rim of this plate created a big bubble of "vacuum" = low pressure with water vapor mixed with air that was big enough for the whole torpedo to be inside this big bubble.

So in reality this was a rocket flying inside a big water vapor bubble.

There was nothing comparable on western navies.

20 years later they learned. Nothing available counter-weapon could stop this nor was detecting fats enough to see the reality.

There is no information that this torpedo was ever used.

RHABE

Thanks for the information, RHABE. I'll add that weapons system to my list of future research projects. Now, I just need to learn to read Russian!

Use the term supercavitation to find out more.

I believe it is called Shkval.

http://www.worldaffairsboard.com/naval-forces/2011-supersonic-torpedo-shkval.html

I dunno, but the 1960's was a period of several submarine disasters. Is eem to remember there being a nuclear sub that went down on it's maiden voyage with a bunch of dignitaries on board. Never heard much in the media after the first reports, unlike today's media which would likely insisted on being aboard.

Look up the USS Thresher, SSN 593.

The theory I like best and makes the most sense is that the Mark 37 battery in one their electric torpedos caught fire as had happened previously. The plan of action when this happened was to cool the battery and put out the fire and if not successful, eject it from the boat. It was thought they were in the process of pulling it into the tube when the battery fire caused a low order detonation of the warhead. This wrecked the inner tube doors and blew off the tube's outer door, torpedo room access hatch and sprung the operations compartment bulkhead. Flooding was instananeous and the sub became nose heavy and headed for the bottom. From what I have read, was that the first mention of a torpedo problem in the room was misunderstood and the captain thought they had a hot running fish. The course of action for this event was to turn the boat 180 degrees and head for the surface to check for nearby shipping then if clear to shoot the torpedo. Turning the sub would prevent the warhead from being armed and detonating since it would arm itself after the torpedo had determined it had run the prescribed number of yards based on the number of screw rotations. When the captain finally understood that it was a battery fire and the ship was filling up with heat and smoke, the order was given to surface the boat to ventilate after the fire was extinguished. They were nearing the surface and had the periscope and antenna up when the torpedo blew. The torpedo room flooded and the boat took on a steep down angle. The engine room hatch was on the surface long enough for one man to escape whose body was found near the wreckage. 91 seconds after the detonation, the sub reaches crush depth.

Read Blind Man's Bluff by Sontag and Drew for a good read.