fiddler@Sun.COM (Steve Hix) (01/20/89)
In article <3210@cbnews.ATT.COM>, smb@ulysses (Steve Bellovin) writes: > > I seem to recall, many years ago, a Navy jet that could launch a torpedo > to the rear. The torpedo tube exit was between the two engine exhausts, > which in itself would make for some interesting engineering problems. > Does anyone remember any more details about this plane? It was a nuclear attack bomber called the "Vigilante". (North American?) There was a launcher installed between the two engines of the aircraft intended to let the crew fire a nuclear weapon toward the target while leaving the neighborhood. Don't know that it could handle torpedoes, though, since they are typically 18-24" in diameter.
military@cbnews.ATT.COM (William B. Thacker) (01/20/89)
>I seem to recall, many years ago, a Navy jet that could launch a torpedo >to the rear. The torpedo tube exit was between the two engine exhausts, >which in itself would make for some interesting engineering problems. >Does anyone remember any more details about this plane? You're probably thinking of the A-5 Vigilante supersonic bomber, which was designed to drop a nuclear bomb (not a torpedo) that way. There was a long tunnel up the center of the aircraft, theoretically filled with a bomb up front (so it could be reached for manual arming) and fuel tanks aft. The tanks were attached to the bomb and the whole thing was pushed out as a unit. It sort of worked. The A-5s usually ended up with the tunnel full of equipment and fixed fuel tanks, as I recall, especially after the missile subs took over most of the Navy's strategic nuclear role. Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu