Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 185 Test Driving a Torpedo
Therefore, converting the torpedo's gas tank into a cockpit is more than enough, and there's even plenty of room left over, since the torpedo's gas tank is over three meters long!
The cockpit only needs to be about two meters long, but the extra space can be used to add fuel to the torpedo. After all, torpedoes that originally relied on compressed air for combustion in the water only have a limited amount of compressed air, so adding too much fuel would be a waste.

But things are different now. By using a trachea to draw air, the limitation of insufficient combustion gas has been removed. Now, the only thing that can affect the range of a manned torpedo is fuel. So, by adding more fuel, the range of the torpedo can be increased from several thousand meters to tens, hundreds, or even thousands of kilometers without any problem.

Finally, there's the issue of escape before impact. Without a good escape device, the manned torpedo would be useless, just like the Japanese Kaiten torpedo, achieving little success.

Wang Gensheng came up with a better solution: a parachute escape method. This involved attaching a small parachute to the pilot, which remained closed under normal circumstances, resembling a rope. Once the pilot locked onto the torpedo's target and the torpedo was within one kilometer of the impact point, the parachute would be deployed under the pilot's control.

This parachute isn't very big; when fully deployed, it's about the size of an umbrella. But the resistance of water is eight hundred times that of air!

The sudden deployment of a parachute in the water creates enormous drag, which directly pulls the torpedo operator out of the torpedo cockpit at a speed of 80 kilometers per hour, allowing the torpedo to crash into the ship due to its inertia.

It's important to understand that submarines or warships typically launch torpedoes at distances of three, four, five, or even seven or eight kilometers from enemy warships. One kilometer is already a distance from which a ship cannot escape.

A torpedo traveling at over 80 kilometers per hour can cover a distance of one kilometer in just a few dozen seconds, which is far too little time for a large ship to evade.

The first modified manned torpedo was naturally piloted by Wang Gensheng himself. However, for safety reasons, the explosive charge inside the combat section at the front of the torpedo was removed. It contained 300 kilograms of explosives. If such a large amount of explosives were to explode, Wang Gensheng would be completely destroyed.

As for the torpedo's control, that's readily available. After all, a gyroscope has been installed to ensure that the torpedo can travel in a straight line underwater. With this gyroscope, the torpedo's left and right direction and depth underwater can be ensured.

In response, Wang, the captain who participated in the torpedo modification, removed the original vertical rudder control stick controlled by the gyroscope and then transferred the control of the torpedo's vertical rudder to the cockpit by extending the connecting rod. In this way, the left and right yaw, which was originally controlled by the torpedo, could be controlled by the pilot.

Of course, simply controlling left and right is not enough. Although controlling left and right is enough to allow a manned torpedo to lock onto a target at sea, sometimes you can't keep the torpedo moving at maximum speed indefinitely. If the mission is not to destroy a ship, but to capture one, then you need to control the torpedo to stop. You can't have a manned torpedo that can't be stopped once it's started!

Therefore, controlling the speed of the torpedo, that is, the throttle of the torpedo engine, is essential. Fortunately, the torpedo itself is actually equivalent to a small unmanned submarine, which can not only control up, down, left and right, but also control the speed.

The device that controls the speed is the speed setting unit on the torpedo. For example, sometimes a submarine can silently approach a ship within three kilometers. To ensure a high hit rate, the torpedo's speed must be set to maximum. This reduces the enemy warship's reaction time and chance of evasion. However, sometimes the enemy warship is surrounded by smaller ships for protection, or the port where the warship is located has anti-submarine nets or mines, preventing it from getting too close. In such cases, a slower speed is needed to increase the torpedo's range.

The torpedo speed control switch is actually a throttle control for the torpedo's internal engine. By changing the throttle, the speed of the torpedo when it is launched is controlled. However, because the torpedo is unmanned, the speed can only be set before launch.

With the torpedo fully modified, Wang Gensheng, as the proposer of the manned torpedo, naturally intended to personally pilot and test it. After placing the modified torpedo into the sea, Wang Gensheng climbed into the cockpit in the middle of the torpedo through the opening in the middle section of the bottom.

Then he put a rubber tube in his mouth. This rubber tube was the same one that Wang Gensheng used to breathe air when he was diving. It was connected to the periscope on the torpedo, allowing Wang Gensheng to breathe fresh air from the surface. At the same time, the tube also had a fork, which was connected to the torpedo's engine to provide combustion air for the engine.

Then, raising its head, its eyes were directly aligned with the periscope mounted on the torpedo, just like the periscope on a submarine.

Then Wang Gensheng found a control stick, which was somewhat similar to the control stick of an airplane. It was located between the two levers. Moving it to the left would control the vertical rudder at the tail of the torpedo to the left, and the torpedo would move to the left. Moving it to the right would control the torpedo to the right.

But that's not all. Wang Gensheng also integrated the torpedo's throttle into this control lever. Moving it forward increases the throttle and accelerates the torpedo, while moving it backward decreases the throttle and decelerates the torpedo. In addition, there is a locking device, which is used to lock the throttle and direction during the final attack phase.

After all, in the final attack phase, the goal is to ram the ship at the fastest speed. By then, the person would have already been pulled out of the torpedo's cockpit by the parachute that opens in the water. If there is no throttle locking device, the torpedo will slow down or stop directly because the throttle is reduced after the person leaves the cockpit, which would be a waste of time!
It must be said that Captain Wang's modification skills are quite good. As the torpedo engine hummed, the torpedo piloted by Wang Gensheng also felt a thrust, pushing the submarine forward slowly.

At first, Wang Gensheng did not increase the throttle, but instead controlled the submarine to turn and maneuver at a speed of several kilometers per hour.

Then, Wang Gensheng began to slowly accelerate, controlling the torpedo's turning and other maneuvers as he accelerated.

After operating it for a while, Wang Gensheng found that controlling the torpedo was not as difficult as he had imagined. On the contrary, it was very easy to control, unlike the difficult Japanese Kaiten torpedo. Perhaps the reason why the Kaiten torpedo was difficult to control was not because it was easy to control.

(End of this chapter)