1EyedJacks wrote: Sun Feb 04, 2024 10:41 pm
RangerJoe wrote: Sun Feb 04, 2024 6:22 pm
1EyedJacks wrote: Sun Feb 04, 2024 4:53 pm
Yamamoto was in the US for a bit - what would he have seen realistically? The Hosho was the first actual flat top - right? Yamamoto was in the US in the early 20s, did flight training in 1924 (Japan), and was back in the US from 26-28. America and the British Navy were filling out DB airframes. I'm not sure when the first Torpedo Plane came out - the TBD-1?
Ummmmm . . .
Maybe the first torpedo plane came out before the First World War?
". . . The first successful aerial torpedo drop was unofficially performed by the later RFC pilot Charles Gordon Bell on 27 July 1914 - dropping a Whitehead torpedo from a Short S.64 seaplane. Gordon Bell was followed the next day by RNAS pilot Arthur Longmore, when officially testing an aerial torpedo. The success of these experiments led to the construction of the first purpose-built operational torpedo aircraft, the Short Type 184, built from 1915."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_torpedo
lol - sorry - I meant a carrier-capable TB - I should use my words like a big-boy.
From a seaplane carrier:
"On 12 August 1915 a Short Type 184, piloted by Flight Commander Charles Edmonds, was the first aircraft in the world to attack an enemy ship with an air-launched torpedo.[18] Operating from HMS Ben-my-Chree in the Aegean Sea, Edmonds took off with a 14-inch-diameter (360 mm), 810-pound (370 kg) torpedo to fly over land[10] and sank a Turkish supply ship in the Sea of Marmara.[5]
Five days later, a Turkish steamship was sunk by a torpedo aimed again by Edmonds. His formation mate, Flight Lieutenant G. B. Dacre, sank a Turkish tugboat after being forced to land on the water with engine trouble. Dacre taxied toward the tugboat, released his torpedo and was then able to take off and return to Ben-My-Chree.[19][20] A limitation to using the Short more widely as a torpedo bomber was that it could only take off carrying a torpedo in conditions of perfect flying weather and calm seas, and, with that load, could only fly for a little more than 45 minutes before running out of fuel. "
"In 1931, the Japanese Navy developed the Type 91 torpedo, intended for a torpedo bomber to drop from a height of 330 feet (100 m) and a speed of 100 knots (190 km/h; 120 mph). . . . "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_torpedo
From:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_B1M
"While working with the Mitsubishi company, the British aircraft designer Herbert Smith designed the 2MT1 two-seat biplane torpedo bomber which flew for the first time in January 1923.[1] It went into Japanese Navy service as the Type 13-1 carrier-borne attack aircraft or B1M1, and was followed by the 2MT2 and 2MT3 variants (also designated B1M1). The redesigned Type 13-2 was designated B1M2. The final version, the Type 13-3 or B1M3, had the company designation 3MT2 and was a three-seater. Total production was 443.[1] The B1M was powered by a 450 hp (340 kW) Napier Lion or Hispano-Suiza engine according to version. "
From:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_T2D
"The first three T2D-1's were delivered to the torpedo bomber squadron VT-2 on 25 May 1927,[1] being used for successful trials aboard the aircraft carrier Langley. A further nine T2D-1's were ordered in 1927, these normally being operated as floatplanes, partly owing to criticism from the Army of the Navy operating large land-based bombers,[1] and partly as its large size prevented Langley from embarking a full airwing."
So I do believe that Yamamoto would have been familiar with aerial torpedoes and torpedo aircraft, even the World War I float planes dropping them since Japan was an Allied power and active in the Med.
; Julia Child
....GP