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137-759: The Blackburn Dart was a carrier-based torpedo bomber biplane aircraft, designed and manufactured by the British aviation company Blackburn Aircraft . It was the standard single-seat torpedo bomber operated by the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) between 1923 and 1933. Work on what would become the Dart started in 1919 as a private venture. Originally known as the T.1 Swift , it performed its maiden flight in September 1920. Three aircraft were ordered for evaluation to fulfil Air Ministry Specification 3/20 , which received

274-478: A briefing that the Yamato had torpedo blisters to a depth of 22 ft (6.7 m), so he crawled back in the fuselage to reset the torpedo's running depth from the 10 ft (3.0 m) preset for the cruiser to 23 ft (7.0 m). He later explained that he heard no command to do this and doubted whether the other five planes had done so. In their case, their torpedoes would have exploded harmlessly against

411-445: A conventional design for the era. It was built around a central nucleus in which the centre fuselage, top centre section, lower wing roots, and undercarriage attachments were one rigid structure composed of steel tubing. This structure provided sufficient strength to withstand the high stresses of carrier operations and carry a heavy concentrated payload, while also being relatively easy to maintain and repair. A similar tubular structure

548-792: A cultivar of the Kazakh dandelion ( Taraxacum kok-saghyz ) that is suitable for commercial production of natural rubber. In collaboration with Continental Tires , IME began a pilot facility. Many other plants produce forms of latex rich in isoprene polymers, though not all produce usable forms of polymer as easily as the Pará. Some of them require more elaborate processing to produce anything like usable rubber, and most are more difficult to tap. Some produce other desirable materials, for example gutta-percha ( Palaquium gutta ) and chicle from Manilkara species. Others that have been commercially exploited, or at least showed promise as rubber sources, include

685-650: A few ship-lengths range of their targets before dropping their torpedoes. At the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in 1942, the Nakajima B5N Kate , despite being in service since 1935, played a key role in sinking USS Hornet , while the new Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers failed to hit a fleet carrier. When the targets were ships able to maneuver at high speed and hence much harder to hit, torpedoes proved less effective, except in cases when

822-447: A fiber, sometimes called 'elastic', had significant value to the textile industry because of its excellent elongation and recovery properties. For these purposes, manufactured rubber fiber was made as either an extruded round fiber or rectangular fibers cut into strips from extruded film. Because of its low dye acceptance, feel and appearance, the rubber fiber was either covered by yarn of another fiber or directly woven with other yarns into

959-510: A form of assisted biological coagulation. Little care is taken to exclude twigs, leaves, and even bark from the lumps that are formed, which may also include tree lace. Earth scrap is material that gathers around the base of the tree. It arises from latex overflowing from the cut and running down the bark, from rain flooding a collection cup containing latex, and from spillage from tappers' buckets during collection. It contains soil and other contaminants, and has variable rubber content, depending on

1096-752: A given strain, thereby increasing the elastic force constant and making the rubber harder and less extensible. Raw rubber storage depots and rubber processing can produce malodour that is serious enough to become a source of complaints and protest to those living in the vicinity. Microbial impurities originate during the processing of block rubber. These impurities break down during storage or thermal degradation and produce volatile organic compounds. Examination of these compounds using gas chromatography / mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and gas chromatography (GC) indicates that they contain sulfur, ammonia, alkenes , ketones , esters , hydrogen sulfide , nitrogen, and low-molecular-weight fatty acids (C2–C5). When latex concentrate

1233-401: A gravity-fed tank housing up to 15 imp gal (68 L; 18 US gal) was present in the centre-top section. It was not necessary to jettison the undercarriage wheels prior to releasing the torpedo , unlike some contemporary aircraft, they were releasable to minimise the tendency for the aircraft to nose over during a forced water landing, for which floatation bags were present in

1370-520: A large stretch ratio and high resilience and also is buoyant and water-proof. Industrial demand for rubber-like materials began to outstrip natural rubber supplies by the end of the 19th century, leading to the synthesis of synthetic rubber in 1909 by chemical means. The major commercial source of natural rubber latex is the Amazonian rubber tree ( Hevea brasiliensis ), a member of the spurge family , Euphorbiaceae . Once native to Brazil,

1507-737: A larger contract for 32 aircraft was issued in August 1924. As late as November 1926, more small orders for replacement aircraft were also received. Production to the Dart came to a close during 1928, by when, 117 aircraft had been produced for the FAA. An export model of the Dart retained the Swift name. This was powered by the Napier Lion engine, capable of producing up to 450 hp (340 kW). The aircraft's ability to carry up to 1,500 lb (680 kg) of bombs or an 18 in (460 mm) torpedo

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1644-545: A much higher launch speed from a much greater altitude than other types. Only five Kates were lost in the attack. In later months, torpedo bombers were responsible for the sinking of the American aircraft carriers Lexington and Hornet , and damaging Yorktown . During the war, Japanese torpedo bombers (mainly the Nakajima B5N ) played a key role in the fatal crippling of the carriers USS Lexington (scuttled as

1781-432: A petroleum refinery or other natural incineration processes, is sometimes used as an additive to rubber to improve its strength, especially in vehicle tires. During vulcanization, rubber's polyisoprene molecules (long chains of isoprene) are heated and cross-linked with molecular bonds to sulfur, forming a 3-D matrix. The optimal percentage of sulfur is approximately 10%. In this form, the polyisoprene molecules orientation

1918-435: A point where it shares properties of both; i.e., if it is heated and cooled, it is degraded but not destroyed. The final properties of a rubber item depend not just on the polymer, but also on modifiers and fillers, such as carbon black , factice , whiting and others. Rubber particles are formed in the cytoplasm of specialized latex-producing cells called laticifers within rubber plants. Rubber particles are surrounded by

2055-486: A result of an internal explosion), USS Yorktown (sunk by a Japanese submarine while being towed), and USS Hornet (abandoned and finished off by US and Japanese surface ships). Three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Sir Tom Phillips was returning to Singapore on board the new battleship HMS  Prince of Wales after an unsuccessful attempt to impede Japanese landings in Malaya . His fleet included

2192-509: A series of piecemeal attacks. However, two torpedoes hit the Bismarck , one of which jammed the rudder leaving the ship without proper directional control. The next day the Bismarck was sunk by British battleships and cruisers. In the early hours of 13 June 1941, two Beauforts found the German cruiser Lützow off Norway. The first was mistaken for a Junkers Ju 88 and was able to torpedo

2329-451: A significant amount of rubber. Gloves (medical, household, and industrial) and toy balloons were large consumers of rubber, although the type of rubber used is concentrated latex. Significant tonnage of rubber was used as adhesives in many manufacturing industries and products, although the two most noticeable were the paper and the carpet industries. Rubber was commonly used to make rubber bands and pencil erasers . Rubber produced as

2466-453: A single phospholipid membrane with hydrophobic tails pointed inward. The membrane allows biosynthetic proteins to be sequestered at the surface of the growing rubber particle, which allows new monomeric units to be added from outside the biomembrane, but within the lacticifer. The rubber particle is an enzymatically active entity that contains three layers of material, the rubber particle, a biomembrane and free monomeric units. The biomembrane

2603-604: A single bomb hit on Repulse and a single torpedo hit on Prince of Wales . The torpedo struck where the outer port propeller shaft exited the hull and Prince of Wales took on 2,400 t (2,400 long tons; 2,600 short tons) of water through a ruptured stern gland. The battleship listed 12 degrees to port preventing the starboard side 5.25 inch anti-aircraft guns from depressing low enough to deter more torpedo bombers. A second squadron, this time of Mitsubishi G4M Betty torpedo bombers, now attacked both ships. Repulse had dodged 19 torpedoes by skillful steering, but now G4Ms attacked

2740-574: A single design to excel at both. While some torpedo fighters were put into production, such as the Fiat G.55S and Blackburn Firebrand , they seldom launched torpedoes at enemy ships. From 1946, the US Navy officially discarded its separate designations for dive and torpedo bombers, and introduced a single "Attack" designation, similar to that already used by the USAAF. Conversely, the naval air services of

2877-435: A standard torpedo below the fuselage. A novelty was the detachable mounting for the engine, which facilitated its replacement as a complete power unit and enabled its swapping in a matter of hours. Another advanced feature was the presence of a fireproof bulkhead between the engine bay and the self-sealing fuel tank in the fuselage, which could accommodate up to 66 imp gal (300 L; 79 US gal) of fuel;

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3014-589: A time, being used for experimental purposes. During 1923, the Dart T.2 entered service with the Fleet Air Arm (FAA). The first units to receive the type were No 460 Flight aboard HMS  Eagle stationed in the Mediterranean and with 461 and 462 Flights on HMS  Furious based in home waters. Shore training was conducted by "D3" Flight at Gosport. According to the aviation author Audrey Jackson,

3151-564: A torpedo bomber was that it had to fly a long, straight course at a constant altitude of 30 m (98 ft) toward the target ship before launching its torpedo. Torpedoes were very complicated weapons and were prone to damage when landing on water, especially on a wave; they were ideally aimed at the bottom of a wave, but this was difficult to achieve in practice. During a torpedo run, the attacking aircraft were easy targets for defending combat air patrol fighters. Furthermore, torpedo planes were also highly vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire. In

3288-401: A wire that encircles the tree. This wire incorporates a spring so it can stretch as the tree grows. The latex is led into the cup by a galvanised "spout" knocked into the bark. Rubber tapping normally takes place early in the morning, when the internal pressure of the tree is highest. A good tapper can tap a tree every 20 seconds on a standard half-spiral system, and a common daily "task" size

3425-662: A year after that. Even before the outbreak of the Second World War, the Royal Navy had studied the threat in the Mediterranean posed by the Italian fleet , which had its advance base in the new port of Taranto in the "heel" of Italy. Captain Lumley Lyster of the aircraft carrier HMS  Glorious proposed that his Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers could launch a night attack against Taranto. At that time,

3562-442: Is 25 cm (vertical) bark consumption per year. The latex-containing tubes in the bark ascend in a spiral to the right. For this reason, tapping cuts usually ascend to the left to cut more tubes. The trees drip latex for about four hours, stopping as latex coagulates naturally on the tapping cut, thus blocking the latex tubes in the bark. Tappers usually rest and have a meal after finishing their tapping work and then start collecting

3699-418: Is a natural polymer of isoprene (polyisoprene), and an elastomer (a stretchy polymer). Polymers are simply chains of molecules that can be linked together. Rubber is one of the few naturally occurring polymers and prized for its high stretch ratio, resilience, and water-proof properties. Other examples of natural polymers include tortoise shell , amber , and animal horn . When harvested, latex rubber takes

3836-532: Is a sticky, milky and white colloid drawn off by making incisions in the bark and collecting the fluid in vessels in a process called "tapping". The latex then is refined into the rubber that is ready for commercial processing. In major areas, latex is allowed to coagulate in the collection cup. The coagulated lumps are collected and processed into dry forms for sale. Natural rubber is used extensively in many applications and products, either alone or in combination with other materials. In most of its useful forms, it has

3973-415: Is between 450 and 650 trees. Trees are usually tapped on alternate or third days, although many variations in timing, length and number of cuts are used. "Tappers would make a slash in the bark with a small hatchet. These slanting cuts allowed latex to flow from ducts located on the exterior or the inner layer of bark ( cambium ) of the tree. Since the cambium controls the growth of the tree, growth stops if it

4110-496: Is cut. Thus, rubber tapping demanded accuracy, so that the incisions would not be too many given the size of the tree, or too deep, which could stunt its growth or kill it." It is usual to tap a panel at least twice, sometimes three times, during the tree's life. The economic life of the tree depends on how well the tapping is carried out, as the critical factor is bark consumption. A standard in Malaysia for alternate daily tapping

4247-438: Is held tightly to the rubber core by the high negative charge along the double bonds of the rubber polymer backbone. Free monomeric units and conjugated proteins make up the outer layer. The rubber precursor is isopentenyl pyrophosphate (an allylic compound), which elongates by Mg -dependent condensation by the action of rubber transferase. The monomer adds to the pyrophosphate end of the growing polymer. The process displaces

Blackburn Dart - Misplaced Pages Continue

4384-572: Is low and strain results from small changes of bond lengths and angles: this caused the Challenger disaster , when the American Space Shuttle 's flattened o-rings failed to relax to fill a widening gap. The glass transition is fast and reversible: the force resumes on heating. The parallel chains of stretched rubber are susceptible to crystallization. This takes some time because turns of twisted chains have to move out of

4521-899: Is not cultivated widely in its native continent of South America because of the South American leaf blight , and other natural predators there. Rubber latex is extracted from rubber trees. The economic life of rubber trees in plantations is around 32 years, with up to 7 years being an immature phase and about 25 years of productive phase. The soil requirement is well-drained, weathered soil consisting of laterite , lateritic types, sedimentary types, nonlateritic red or alluvial soils. The climatic conditions for optimum growth of rubber trees are: Many high-yielding clones have been developed for commercial planting. These clones yield more than 2,000 kilograms per hectare (1,800 lb/acre) of dry rubber per year, under ideal conditions. Rubber production has been linked to deforestation. Rubber therefore

4658-588: Is one of seven commodities included in the 2023 EU Regulation on Deforestation-free products (EUDR), which aims to guarantee that the products European Union (EU) citizens consume do not contribute to deforestation or forest degradation worldwide. In places such as Kerala and Sri Lanka, where coconuts are in abundance, the half shell of coconut was used as the latex collection container. Glazed pottery or aluminium or plastic cups became more common in Kerala-India and other countries. The cups are supported by

4795-449: Is produced by smallholders, who collect rubber from trees far from the nearest factory. Many Indonesian smallholders, who farm paddies in remote areas, tap dispersed trees on their way to work in the paddy fields and collect the latex (or the coagulated latex) on their way home. As it is often impossible to preserve the latex sufficiently to get it to a factory that processes latex in time for it to be used to make high quality products, and as

4932-529: Is produced from rubber, sulfuric acid is used for coagulation. This produces malodourous hydrogen sulfide. The industry can mitigate these bad odours with scrubber systems . Rubber is the polymer cis-1,4-polyisoprene – with a molecular weight of 100,000 to 1,000,000 daltons . Typically, a small percentage (up to 5% of dry mass) of other materials, such as proteins , fatty acids , resins , and inorganic materials (salts) are found in natural rubber. Polyisoprene can also be created synthetically, producing what

5069-567: Is sometimes applied to the tree-obtained version of natural rubber in order to distinguish it from the synthetic version. The first use of rubber was by the indigenous cultures of Mesoamerica . The earliest archeological evidence of the use of natural latex from the Hevea tree comes from the Olmec culture, in which rubber was first used for making balls for the Mesoamerican ballgame . Rubber

5206-402: Is sometimes referred to as "synthetic natural rubber", but the synthetic and natural routes are distinct. Some natural rubber sources, such as gutta-percha , are composed of trans-1,4-polyisoprene, a structural isomer that has similar properties. Natural rubber is an elastomer and a thermoplastic . Once the rubber is vulcanized, it is a thermoset . Most rubber in everyday use is vulcanized to

5343-479: Is still random but they become aligned when the rubber is stretched. This sulfur vulcanization makes the rubber stronger and more rigid, but still very elastic. And through the vulcanization process, the sulfur and latex are meant to be totally used up in individual form. Natural rubber latex is shipped from factories in Southeast Asia , South America , and West and Central Africa to destinations around

5480-542: The Aichi B7A Ryusei , Curtiss SB2C Helldiver and Fairey Barracuda , or; land-based twin-engined light bombers / attack aircraft , such as the Bristol Beaufighter , Douglas A-20C (Boston IIIA), Junkers Ju 88 , and Tupolev Tu-2 . As the war progressed, single-seat designs also emerged – omitting the roles of gunner, bombardier/bomb-aimer and/or observer. This configuration was favoured by

5617-548: The Battle of Jutland in 1916 but when the war ended only 90 Cuckoos had been completed. The Vickers Vimy twin-engine heavy bomber was designed to bomb German cities in retribution for German air attacks on England. It reached squadrons in France too late to play a role in the First World War. Had the war continued, it would have been deployed as a torpedo bomber. Of the major maritime nations, only Britain, Japan and

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5754-495: The Handley Page Hanley were conducted at Gosport, during which the Dart emerged as the victor and became the new standard torpedo bomber of the Fleet Air Arm. An initial production contract for 26 aircraft was issued to Blackburn. During March 1922, deliveries commenced, having been built at Blackburn's Olympia Works and tested at Brough. Three additional batches of ten Darts each were produced between 1923 and 1924;

5891-882: The Ilyushin Il-28T ) were adapted as torpedo bombers in the late 1940s and 1950s. The last known torpedo bomber attack was made by US Navy Skyraiders against the Hwacheon Dam during the Korean War . The North Korean Air Force finally retired the world's last operational torpedo bombers in the 1980s. In a parallel development, many maritime strike aircraft and helicopters have been capable of launching guided torpedoes; however, they are not generally referred to as torpedo bombers because of their vastly greater detection and tracking capabilities, although they remain just as capable of making attacks on surface ships as against submarines. Many naval staffs began to appreciate

6028-630: The Japanese aircraft carrier Shōhō in the Battle of the Coral Sea , but failed to sink the aircraft carrier Shōkaku the next day. At the Battle of Midway on 4 June 1942, 41 Devastators launched from three American carriers failed to score a single torpedo hit, and only six aircraft returned, as the rest fell to the Mitsubishi A6M Zero combat air patrols and ships' anti-aircraft fire. The attacks had been poorly coordinated, but

6165-587: The Lützow without return fire, putting her out of action for six months. The second was shot down by defending Messerschmitt Bf 109s . In the attack on Pearl Harbor , Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto 's fleet of six carriers launched 40 Nakajima B5N 2 Kate torpedo bombers on Sunday, 7 December 1941. The Japanese struck the United States Pacific Fleet when it was moored in harbour. The torpedo bombers coordinated their attacks with dive bombers;

6302-505: The Mullins effect and the Payne effect and is often modeled as hyperelastic . Rubber strain crystallizes . Because there are weakened allylic C-H bonds in each repeat unit , natural rubber is susceptible to vulcanisation as well as being sensitive to ozone cracking . The two main solvents for rubber are turpentine and naphtha (petroleum). Because rubber does not dissolve easily,

6439-728: The Putumayo genocide . Between the 1880s–1913 Julio César Arana and his company that would become the Peruvian Amazon Company controlled the Putumayo river. W.E. Hardenburg, Benjamin Saldaña Rocca and Roger Casement were influential figures in exposing these atrocities. Roger Casement was also prominent in revealing the Congo atrocities to the world. Days before entering Iquitos by boat Casement wrote "'Caoutchouc

6576-778: The Royal Naval Air Service in April 1912 and took flying lessons to foster aviation development. Churchill ordered the RNAS to design reconnaissance spotters and torpedo bombers for the Fleet. The British Admiralty ordered the Short Admiralty Type 81 biplane floatplane as a reconnaissance aircraft. It first flew in July 1913 and was loaded aboard the cruiser HMS  Hermes , which had been converted to become

6713-652: The Royal Navy 's first seaplane tender . When the rival Sopwith Special , designed from the outset as a torpedo bomber, failed to lift its payload off the water, Shorts converted the Type 81 to carry torpedoes in July 1914, just before the outbreak of the First World War. On 28 July 1914, Arthur Longmore dropped the first aerial torpedo, a 14-inch 810 lb torpedo, from a Type 81 at the Royal Naval Air Station Calshot. The support wires of

6850-557: The cytosol . In plants, isoprene pyrophosphate can also be obtained from the 1-deox-D-xyulose-5-phosphate/2-C-methyl-D-erythritol-4-phosphate pathway within plasmids. The relative ratio of the farnesyl pyrophosphate initiator unit and isoprenyl pyrophosphate elongation monomer determines the rate of new particle synthesis versus elongation of existing particles. Though rubber is known to be produced by only one enzyme, extracts of latex host numerous small molecular weight proteins with unknown function. The proteins possibly serve as cofactors, as

6987-835: The sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse . Other twin-engine or three-engined aircraft designed or used as torpedo bombers include the Mitsubishi Ki-67 , the Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 "Sparviero", the CANT Z.1007 , the Bristol Beaufort and Bristol Beaufighter ("Torbeau"), the Junkers Ju 88 , the Heinkel He 111 , the B-25 Mitchell and many others. Some postwar jet aircraft (such as

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7124-526: The 1930s, the Imperial Japanese Navy developed the best way for torpedo bombers to achieve a hit. They used an "anvil attack", in which two groups of torpedo planes approached the target ship's bow from behind at an angle of about 45 degrees, one on each side of the ship. The torpedoes were to be launched at the same distance from the ship; this would have ensured a hit no matter where the ship tried to maneuver. In practice, this kind of attack

7261-526: The 5 in (130 mm) "Holy Moses" High Velocity Aircraft Rocket, with a 24 lb (11 kg) warhead for the US Navy. It was rushed to Europe for use on D-Day and later used by Navy aircraft in the Pacific. By the beginning of the Second World War, aircraft technology had increased to the extent that specialised torpedo bombers were no longer necessary. Multi-role designs were often adapted from either: single-engined, carrier-based dive-bombers like

7398-457: The Académie (published in 1755) that described many of rubber's properties. This has been referred to as the first scientific paper on rubber. In England, Joseph Priestley , in 1770, observed that a piece of the material was extremely good for rubbing off pencil marks on paper, hence the name "rubber". It slowly made its way around England. In 1764, François Fresnau discovered that turpentine

7535-765: The Beaufighters, a development of the Beaufort fitted with four 20mm cannon, shot up the anti-aircraft gunners. This was intended to give the Beauforts a clear torpedo run. However, none of the 28 Beauforts achieved a hit, and three aircraft were lost. The United States Navy's standard torpedo bomber in 1942 was the Douglas TBD Devastator , first flown in 1935 and embarked on carriers of the Pacific Fleet in 1937. On 7 May 1942, Devastators sank

7672-542: The Blackburn Reserve School, alongside a number of T.3s converted to landplanes, until their eventual replacement by the Blackburn Ripon and Blackburn Baffin during 1933. Perhaps the most notable event in the career of the Dart occurred on 6 May 1926 when Air Commodore G. H. Boyce became the first pilot to carry out a night deck landing, alighting his Dart aboard Furious . The flight deck

7809-540: The British Government's secret list , which meant that it could only be displayed without specialised naval equipment, such as its torpedo release apparatus. The torpedo had to be placed on the ground between the undercarriage rather than being placed in its operational position. During September 1920, the prototype Swift conducted its maiden flight ; it reportedly almost crashed during the flight on account of its miscalculated centre of gravity . This problem

7946-673: The Congo Free State for more information on the rubber trade in the Congo Free State in the late 1800s and early 1900s.) The rubber boom in the Amazon also similarly affected indigenous populations to varying degrees. Correrias, or slave raids were frequent in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia where many were either captured or killed. The most well known case of atrocities generated from rubber extraction in South America came from

8083-497: The Dart played an important role in the FAA's development and perfection of techniques for torpedo-bombing. During 1928, the Blackburn Dart flew with Nos. 463 and 464 Flights embarked on HMS  Courageous in the Mediterranean fleet. The following year, a Dart was delivered to 36 Squadron (Coastal Defence Torpedo Flight) RAF, initially for smokescreen trials and later to form part of the complement of torpedo bombers in

8220-526: The Devastator sorties were credited with pulling the defending A6M Zeros out of position, as well as preventing the Japanese carriers from launching their aircraft, so three of the four carriers were caught with their hangar decks full of fueled and armed planes when the American dive bombers struck by surprise. Nonetheless, the Devastator was immediately withdrawn from front-line service. The successor to

8357-524: The Devastator, the Grumman TBF Avenger , arrived too late at Pearl Harbor to be loaded onto carriers for the Battle of Midway. However, six were flown from Midway Island . They fared no better, with five lost without a single hit. Avengers became more successful as tactics improved and crews became more skilled. On 24 August 1942, 24 Avengers sank the light carrier Ryūjō at the Battle of

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8494-574: The Eastern Solomons . At Guadalcanal , Avengers from the Navy and Marine Corps helped to finish off the battleship Hiei , which had lost steering after being damaged the prior night. Beauforts also had more success when they moved to Malta to attack Italian warships and transport. Flying Officer Arthur Aldridge discovered a convoy guarded by the heavy cruiser Trento early on 14 June 1942 some 200 miles (320 km) east of Malta. As in

8631-435: The First World War battlecruiser HMS  Repulse and should also have had the new aircraft carrier HMS  Indomitable with a squadron of Sea Hurricanes . But the carrier was delayed for repairs after running aground in the harbour at Kingston, Jamaica . Eight Mitsubishi G3M Nell twin-engine level bombers and 17 Nell torpedo bombers found the two capital ships without air cover in broad daylight. They scored just

8768-405: The First World War. Generally, they carried torpedoes specifically designed for air launch, which were smaller and lighter than those used by submarines and surface warships. Nonetheless, as an airborne torpedo could weigh as much as 2,000 pounds (910 kg), more than twice the bomb load of contemporary single-engined bombers, the aircraft carrying it usually needed to be specially designed for

8905-439: The Royal Navy was the only force in the world with this capability. The Swordfish, a three-seat biplane, looked outmoded, but its low stall speed made it an ideal platform for launching torpedoes into the shallow waters of Taranto. The torpedoes were adapted with wire cables attached to their nose and wooden fins at their tail to slow their fall and make a shallow impact with the water, which was only 39 ft (12 m) deep. On

9042-606: The Swift prototype was also fitted as standard. During October 1921, the prototype Dart performed its first flight; on 24 October, it was flown from Brough to RAF Martlesham for performance testing. It reportedly handled well, in spite of its size and exhibited a remarkable stalling speed of only 43 mph (69 km/h). The first prototype also participated in deck handling trials aboard Argus . The second and third prototypes underwent various evaluations, most of which were performed at Martlesham. A series of competitive trials against

9179-596: The UK and other Commonwealth countries, persisted with specialised torpedo bombers such as the Grumman Avenger until the early 1960s. While the importance of air-launched torpedoes declined, relative to anti-ship missiles , during the Cold War and subsequently, they were retained by many air services and are now generally delivered by anti-submarine warfare and maritime patrol aircraft . One crucial limitation of

9316-446: The US Navy, in particular, and included the Martin AM Mauler and Douglas A-1 Skyraider , both of which could carry up to three torpedoes. Another concept, the torpedo fighter , also known as the strike fighter, was intended to also have air superiority capabilities – when it was not carrying or had dropped its torpedo. However, the radically differing requirements of these two roles created design constraints that made it difficult for

9453-414: The United States developed carrier-borne torpedo bombers after hostilities ceased in Europe. Initially, Japan purchased both ships and aircraft from Britain, as the Imperial Japanese Navy modelled itself on the Royal Navy. Of the three, only Britain and Japan also perceived a need for land-based torpedo bombers, though a number would be developed by other countries. Bordered by oceans against any possible foe,

9590-414: The United States ignored landplane torpedo bomber development. The first landplane specifically designed as a torpedo bomber was the Hawker Horsley . By the mid 1930s, the torpedo bombers that would start the Second World War were being deployed. The Fairey Swordfish flew first in 1934, the Douglas TBD Devastator and Mitsubishi G3M (Nell) in 1935 and the Nakajima B5N (Kate) and Bristol Beaufort

9727-439: The aircraft's performance proved inadequate. Admiral Bradley A. Fiske of the United States Navy took out a patent in 1912 for a torpedo carrying aircraft entitled "Method of and apparatus for delivering submarine torpedoes from airships ." He suggested that aircraft would attack at night. Winston Churchill , as First Lord of the Admiralty from October 1911 to May 1915, was a strong proponent of naval air power. He established

9864-648: The aircraft, the Blackburn Velos , which was operated by the Greek Navy as a torpedo bomber. During late 1919, Blackburn commenced design work on what would become the Dart; it was initially pursued as a private venture. Around this time, the Air Ministry had reissued its requirement for a new carrier-based torpedo-bomber that would replace the Sopwith Cuckoo , the standard torpedo bomber of

10001-409: The amount of contaminants. Earth scrap is collected by field workers two or three times a year and may be cleaned in a scrap-washer to recover the rubber, or sold to a contractor who cleans it and recovers the rubber. It is of low quality. Latex coagulates in the cups if kept for long and must be collected before this happens. The collected latex, "field latex", is transferred into coagulation tanks for

10138-621: The attack on Lützow , the Beaufort was mistaken for a Junkers Ju 88, and Aldridge hit Trento with his torpedo; the ship was eventually finished off by the submarine HMS  Umbra  (P35) , which was close by. At the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea , with little or no Japanese air cover opposing them, US carrier aircraft concentrated most of their attacks against Musashi , sinking her with about 19 torpedoes that caused heavy flooding which disabled her engineering (dive bombers also scored around 17 bomb hits), while an aerial torpedo crippled

10275-571: The blisters. A crewman photographed the explosion, in which debris rose to their altitude of 300 feet (91 m). Possibly a torpedo had hit the fuel storage. The Yamato rolled over and sank, with the loss of 90 percent of the crew. The Yorktown lost ten planes and twelve aircrew. All pilots involved in the attack were awarded the Navy Medal and every crewman the Distinguished Flying Cross . The torpedoes in use during

10412-496: The bow from both sides and scored another hit. At about this point, Repulse radioed for defensive fighters. A squadron of 10 Royal Australian Air Force Brewster Buffalos arrived an hour later to watch Prince of Wales sink. Repulse had already sunk. Each ship had been hit by four torpedoes out of 49 fired. The Japanese lost four aircraft. Neither G3Ms nor G4Ms carried defensive armament, which had been stripped to extend their range. The presence of modern Allied fighters to defend

10549-469: The combined effort sank or damaged all eight of the battleships which they found moored in Pearl Harbor. The Japanese had studied the attack on Taranto and had practiced dropping specially modified Type 91 torpedoes in the shallow waters of Japan's Inland Sea . The Type 91 torpedo was considerably more capable than any others in the world at that time, being very fast and reliable, as well as allowing

10686-407: The crews launching them were especially well trained. Still, even a single torpedo hit on an enemy warship could cripple it decisively, especially in the case of vessels without an armored belt (cruisers and aircraft carriers often had torpedo blisters, but these were not as extensive as those of battleships). Even on heavily armored battleships, there was nothing to protect the rudder and propellers at

10823-477: The defenders were caught by surprise. Torpedo bombers were best used as part of a coordinated attack with other types of aircraft. For instance, during the attack on the battleship Yamato , fighter planes strafed the ship with machine guns to suppress its anti-aircraft gun fire, while dive bombers tried to cause havoc and inflict topside damage, thus leaving the torpedo bombers unmolested in their attack runs, In total she took 12 torpedoes and 8 bombs to destroy

10960-486: The defending troops in the expected Allied seaborne invasion. Her 18.1 inch guns could have created havoc among frail landing craft. Yamato and her sister the Musashi were the largest, most powerful battleships in the world. The squadron led by Lieutenant Tom Stetson found the cruiser, which was the prime target, already sinking, so six planes were detached to attack the Yamato instead. One in which Frederick E. Wicklund

11097-407: The dry rubber produced. Latex that drips onto the ground, "earth scrap", is also collected periodically for processing of low-grade product. Cup lump is the coagulated material found in the collection cup when the tapper next visits the tree to tap it again. It arises from latex clinging to the walls of the cup after the latex was last poured into the bucket, and from late-dripping latex exuded before

11234-666: The early 1900s, the Congo Free State in Africa was also a significant source of natural rubber latex, mostly gathered by forced labor . King Leopold II's colonial state brutally enforced production quotas due to the high price of natural rubber at the time. Tactics to enforce the rubber quotas included removing the hands of victims to prove they had been killed. Soldiers often came back from raids with baskets full of chopped-off hands. Villages that resisted were razed to encourage better compliance locally. (See Atrocities in

11371-478: The early 20th century travelled under water at about 40 knots (74 km/h; 46 mph) – a speed easily matched by destroyers and even fast battleships which could make 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph). Consequently, a skillful captain could often evade torpedoes. For instance, when HMS  Repulse came under attack on 10 December 1941 , she avoided 19 torpedoes, before Japanese aircraft attacked simultaneously from both forward quarters. Caltech developed

11508-407: The era being flown from the aircraft carriers of the Royal Navy . Blackburn's efforts were led by their chief designer, Major Frank Bumpus . Designing was undertaken in close collaboration with the British engineering company D. Napier & Son . This new aircraft was originally named the T.1 Swift . It was a relatively large single-seat biplane, which was in several respects considered to be

11645-421: The export of seeds or plants. In 1876, Henry Wickham smuggled 70,000 Amazonian rubber tree seeds from Brazil and delivered them to Kew Gardens , England. Only 2,400 of these germinated. Seedlings were then sent to India , British Ceylon ( Sri Lanka ), Dutch East Indies ( Indonesia ), Singapore , and British Malaya . Malaya (now Peninsular Malaysia ) was later to become the biggest producer of rubber. In

11782-636: The fabric. Rubber yarns were used in foundation garments. While rubber is still used in textile manufacturing, its low tenacity limits its use in lightweight garments because latex lacks resistance to oxidizing agents and is damaged by aging, sunlight, oil and perspiration. The textile industry turned to neoprene (polymer of chloroprene ), a type of synthetic rubber, as well as another more commonly used elastomer fiber, spandex (also known as elastane), because of their superiority to rubber in both strength and durability. Rubber exhibits unique physical and chemical properties. Rubber's stress–strain behavior exhibits

11919-546: The first fully operational torpedo bomber squadron of the Royal Air Force . Three Darts were converted into two-seat seaplanes to provide advanced training at Blackburn's RAF Reserve School on the River Humber between 1925 and 1929. These conversions led to a new variant, the T.3 Velos , which was procured by Greece in 1925 for use as a torpedo bomber by the Greek Navy . The Dart continued in service with

12056-477: The first technique for tapping trees for latex without causing serious harm to the tree. Because of his fervent promotion of this crop, he is popularly remembered by the nickname "Mad Ridley". Before World War II significant uses included door and window profiles, hoses, belts, gaskets, matting , flooring, and dampeners (antivibration mounts) for the automotive industry. The use of rubber in car tires (initially solid rather than pneumatic) in particular consumed

12193-500: The floats were moved to allow the torpedo to be carried above the water and a specially designed quick-release mechanism was used. The first plane designed from the outset as a torpedo bomber was the five-seat floatplane biplane AD Seaplane Type 1000 or AD1. However, it proved to be a failure. When the prototype built by J. Samuel White from the Isle of Wight first flew in June 1916, it

12330-544: The form of latex, an opaque, white, milky suspension of rubber particles in water. It is then transformed through industrial processes to the solid form widely seen in manufactured goods. Natural rubber is reactive and vulnerable to oxidization, but it can be stabilized through a heating process called vulcanization. Vulcanization is a process by which the rubber is heated and sulfur , peroxide , or bisphenol are added to improve resistance and elasticity and to prevent it from oxidizing. Carbon black , which can be derived from

12467-523: The fuselage. The undercarriage incorporated a triangular support structure, a lengthy support axle, and a rubber compression shock absorber leg. Slings fitted to the top centre section were used to hoist the aircraft aboard ship. By July 1920, the prototype Swift was sufficiently complete as to permit it to go on be static display to the public at the Olympia Aero Show but without a radiator or controls. The aircraft had already been placed on

12604-427: The heavy cruiser Myōkō, which was never repaired for the remainder of the war. Action continued in the Pacific, where the last notable torpedo bomber attack took place on 7 April 1945. Avengers from Yorktown were searching between Okinawa and Honshu for the Japanese battleship Yamato , which was escorted by cruisers and destroyers. Her mission was to run aground on Okinawa to provide floating heavy artillery for

12741-459: The higher-grade, technically specified block rubbers such as SVR 3L or SVR CV or used to produce Ribbed Smoke Sheet grades. Naturally coagulated rubber (cup lump) is used in the manufacture of TSR10 and TSR20 grade rubbers. Processing for these grades is a size reduction and cleaning process to remove contamination and prepare the material for the final stage of drying. The dried material is then baled and palletized for storage and shipment. Rubber

12878-544: The installation of a new engine, a stiffened cowling, and arrestor claws on the stub axles, the prototype was dispatched to Gosport . Shortly thereafter, the type's first deck landing was performed by the Canadian pilot Gerald Boyce onboard HMS  Argus . Having suitably impressed officials, Blackburn received an order for three aircraft to conduct service trials as per Air Ministry Specification 3/20 . These aircraft, which were equipped to Admiralty requirements, received

13015-431: The international market spot price of a seemingly more profitable crop (for example palm oil ) surges in relation to rubber. For instance, during the 2020 and 2021 international COVID-19 pandemic , demand for rubber gloves surged, leading to a spike in rubber prices of about 30%. In addition to the pandemic, demand exceeded supply in part because long term plantations had been torn out and replaced with other crops over

13152-403: The issue of a foldable staggered wing cellule. The centre section of the wing structure was steel, while the outer sections were composed of wood, all of which were covered by fabric. Ailerons were present on all four wings. The tail unit had a braced tailplane and fin with a balanced rudder . The divided landing gear had main wheels on shock absorber (oleo) legs that allowed the fitting of

13289-402: The latex would anyway have coagulated by the time it reached the factory, the smallholder will coagulate it by any means available, in any container available. Some smallholders use small containers, buckets etc., but often the latex is coagulated in holes in the ground, which are usually lined with plastic sheeting. Acidic materials and fermented fruit juices are used to coagulate the latex –

13426-434: The latex-carrying vessels of the tree become blocked. It is of higher purity and of greater value than the other three types. 'Cup lumps' can also be used to describe a completely different type of coagulate that has collected in smallholder plantations over a period of 1–2 weeks. After tapping all of the trees, the tapper will return to each tree and stir in some type of acid, which allows the newly harvested latex to mix with

13563-416: The latex. There is growing concern for the future supply of rubber due to various factors, including plant disease, climate change, and the volatile market price of rubber. Producers of natural rubber are mostly small family-held plantations, often serving large industrial aggregators. High volatility in the price of rubber affects rubber plantation investment, and farmers may remove their rubber trees if

13700-443: The liquid "field latex" at about midday. The four types of field coagula are "cuplump", "treelace", "smallholders' lump", and "earth scrap". Each has significantly different properties. Some trees continue to drip after the collection leading to a small amount of "cup lump" that is collected at the next tapping. The latex that coagulates on the cut is also collected as "tree lace". Tree lace and cup lump together account for 10%–20% of

13837-399: The material is finely divided by shredding prior to its immersion. An ammonia solution can be used to prevent the coagulation of raw latex. Rubber begins to melt at approximately 180 °C (356 °F). On a microscopic scale, relaxed rubber is a disorganized cluster of erratically changing wrinkled chains. In stretched rubber, the chains are almost linear. The restoring force is due to

13974-448: The mission failed to rendezvous due to bad weather. Campbell received a posthumous Victoria Cross for launching his solo torpedo attack, which put Gneisenau out of action for six months. At 1900 hours on 26 May 1941, fifteen Fairey Swordfish were launched from the Royal Navy's carrier HMS  Ark Royal to attack the German battleship Bismarck . Their formation was badly disrupted by heavy clouds and driving rain which resulted in

14111-423: The name Dart . The Dart had its wingspan reduced by 2 ft 11 in (0.89 m), which brought the twin tips closer to the outboard interplane struts, was the most visually distinctive change. Other modifications included the adoption of more powerful engines, either a Napier Lion IIB or V engine that was mounted with a thrust line angled upward. The claw arrestor gear that had been fitted experimentally to

14248-592: The name Dart . First flown in October 1921, its performance quickly impressed officials and a production order was issued to Blackburn on behalf of the FAA. The Swift name was retained for the pursuit of export sales. Several Darts were supplied to overseas operators, including the Japanese Navy , Spanish Navy and the United States Navy . Greece opted to procure a modified seaplane variant of

14385-637: The night of 11 November 1940, 21 Swordfish left the new aircraft carrier HMS  Illustrious . Some carried bombs and flares, but the main force carried torpedoes. British decoy maneuvers and the Italians' lack of radar allowed the British to surprise the ill-prepared Italian fleet at anchor in Taranto. Three battleships were put out of action, half of the Italian fleet, for the loss of two Swordfish. Two airmen were killed and two others captured. The next day,

14522-472: The only survivor. VT-8 was followed by Torpedo Squadron 6 (VT-6, from Enterprise ). VT-6 met nearly the same fate, with no hits to show for its effort. Torpedo Squadron 3 (from Yorktown ) then followed the same routine, despite VT-3 having six Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter escorts. The Japanese combat air patrol, flying the much faster Mitsubishi A6M2 "Zeros", made short work of the unescorted, slow, under-armed TBD torpedo bombers. A few TBDs managed to get within

14659-458: The organic compound isoprene , with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand , Malaysia , Indonesia , and Cambodia are four of the leading rubber producers. Types of polyisoprene that are used as natural rubbers are classified as elastomers . Currently, rubber is harvested mainly in the form of the latex from the Pará rubber tree ( Hevea brasiliensis ) or others. The latex

14796-577: The plantation expanded to Karnataka , Tamil Nadu and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Today, India is the world's 3rd largest producer and 4th largest consumer of rubber. In Singapore and Malaya, commercial production was heavily promoted by Sir Henry Nicholas Ridley , who served as the first Scientific Director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens from 1888 to 1911. He distributed rubber seeds to many planters and developed

14933-569: The possibility of using aircraft to launch torpedoes against moored ships in the period before the First World War. Captain Alessandro Guidoni , an Italian naval captain, experimented with dropping weights from a Farman MF.7 in 1912. which led to Raúl Pateras Pescara and Guidoni developing a purpose-built torpedo bomber from which a 375 lb dummy torpedo was dropped in February 1914 but they abandoned their work shortly afterwards when

15070-606: The preparation of dry rubber or transferred into air-tight containers with sieving for ammoniation. Ammoniation, invented by patent lawyer and vice-president of the United States Rubber Company Ernest Hopkinson around 1920, preserves the latex in a colloidal state for longer periods of time. Latex is generally processed into either latex concentrate for manufacture of dipped goods or coagulated under controlled, clean conditions using formic acid. The coagulated latex can then be processed into

15207-400: The preponderance of wrinkled conformations over more linear ones. For the quantitative treatment see ideal chain , for more examples see entropic force . Cooling below the glass transition temperature permits local conformational changes but a reordering is practically impossible because of the larger energy barrier for the concerted movement of longer chains. "Frozen" rubber's elasticity

15344-422: The previously coagulated material. The rubber/acid mixture is what gives rubber plantations, markets, and factories a strong odor. Tree lace is the coagulum strip that the tapper peels off the previous cut before making a new cut. It usually has higher copper and manganese contents than cup lump. Both copper and manganese are pro-oxidants and can damage the physical properties of the dry rubber. Smallholders' lump

15481-498: The pride of the imperial Japanese Navy. Another instance, during the attack on battleship Musashi , fighter planes strafed the ship with machine guns to suppress its anti-aircraft gun fire, while dive bombers caused major topside damage, She holds the distinction of taking 19 torpedoes and 17 bombs before she sank to the bottom of the Sibuyan Sea. However, if the attackers failed to achieve air superiority or surprise, torpedo bombers suffered heavy losses, regardless of whether

15618-570: The purpose. Many early torpedo bombers were floatplanes , such as the Short 184 (the first aircraft to sink a ship with a torpedo), and the undercarriage had to be redesigned so that the torpedo could be dropped from the aircraft's centerline. While many torpedo bombers were single-engine aircraft, some multi-engined aircraft have also been used as torpedo bombers, with the Mitsubishi G3M Nell and Mitsubishi G4M Betty being used in

15755-521: The remaining Italian battleships withdrew to Naples, ceding control of the Mediterranean to the British. On 6 April 1941, a single Bristol Beaufort piloted by Flying Officer Kenneth Campbell attacked the German battleship Gneisenau in Brest harbour in Brittany, where she and her sister ship, Scharnhorst , were sheltering beneath a massive array of anti-aircraft guns. The other five Beauforts on

15892-420: The rubber fig ( Ficus elastica ), Panama rubber tree ( Castilla elastica ), various spurges ( Euphorbia spp.), lettuce ( Lactuca species), the related Scorzonera tau-saghyz , various Taraxacum species, including common dandelion ( Taraxacum officinale ) and Kazakh dandelion, and, perhaps most importantly for its hypoallergenic properties, guayule ( Parthenium argentatum ). The term gum rubber

16029-580: The same quality as the natural rubber from rubber trees . In the wild types of dandelion, latex content is low and varies greatly. In Nazi Germany , research projects tried to use dandelions as a base for rubber production, but failed. In 2013, by inhibiting one key enzyme and using modern cultivation methods and optimization techniques, scientists in the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME) in Germany developed

16166-454: The species is now pan-tropical. This species is preferred because it grows well under cultivation. A properly managed tree responds to wounding by producing more latex for several years. Congo rubber , formerly a major source of rubber, which motivated the atrocities in the Congo Free State , came from vines in the genus Landolphia ( L. kirkii , L. heudelotis , and L. owariensis ). Dandelion milk contains latex. The latex exhibits

16303-520: The stern, as was demonstrated in the cases of the Bismarck and HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse , and few had their protective belt extend to the extremities, and a hole made in the bow could be forced wider from the pressure of the water which could buckle and crush unarmored internal bulkheads, which worked against Musashi and Yamato . Rubber Rubber , also called India rubber , latex , Amazonian rubber , caucho , or caoutchouc , as initially produced, consists of polymers of

16440-564: The synthetic rate decreases with complete removal. More than 28 million tons of rubber were produced in 2017, of which approximately 47% was natural. Since the bulk is synthetic, which is derived from petroleum, the price of natural rubber is determined, to a large extent, by the prevailing global price of crude oil. Asia was the main source of natural rubber, accounting for about 90% of output in 2021. The three largest producers, Thailand , Indonesia, and Malaysia, together account for around 72% of all natural rubber production. Natural rubber

16577-435: The terminal high-energy pyrophosphate. The reaction produces a cis polymer. The initiation step is catalyzed by prenyltransferase , which converts three monomers of isopentenyl pyrophosphate into farnesyl pyrophosphate . The farnesyl pyrophosphate can bind to rubber transferase to elongate a new rubber polymer. The required isopentenyl pyrophosphate is obtained from the mevalonate pathway, which derives from acetyl-CoA in

16714-577: The two capital ships might have led to a different outcome. On 12 February 1942, Bristol Beauforts were dispatched to intercept the German cruiser Prinz Eugen off Trondheim, Norway . Prinz Eugen had accompanied Bismarck into the Atlantic, but returned to Brest. For the first time, the Beauforts were accompanied by Bristol Beaufighters and Bristol Blenheims . In a new RAF tactic, the Blenheims acted as decoys, making pretense torpedo runs, while

16851-474: The type was obsolete or not. This is best exemplified at the Battle of Midway, where Air Group Eight's dive bombers missed the Japanese carriers. Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8, from Hornet ), led by Lieutenant Commander John C. Waldron , sighted the enemy carriers and attacked without any coordination with dive bombers or fighter cover. Without fighter escort, every TBD Devastator of VT-8 was shot down without inflicting any damage, with Ensign George H. Gay, Jr. being

16988-453: The way of the growing crystallites . Crystallization has occurred, for example, when, after days, an inflated toy balloon is found withered at a relatively large remaining volume. Where it is touched, it shrinks because the temperature of the hand is enough to melt the crystals. Vulcanization of rubber creates di- and polysulfide bonds between chains, which limits the degrees of freedom and results in chains that tighten more quickly for

17125-442: The world. As the cost of natural rubber has risen significantly and rubber products are dense, the shipping methods offering the lowest cost per unit weight are preferred. Depending on destination, warehouse availability, and transportation conditions, some methods are preferred by certain buyers. In international trade, latex rubber is mostly shipped in 20-foot ocean containers. Inside the container, smaller containers are used to store

17262-468: Was a rubber solvent . Giovanni Fabbroni is credited with the discovery of naphtha as a rubber solvent in 1779. Charles Goodyear redeveloped vulcanization in 1839, although Mesoamericans had used stabilized rubber for balls and other objects as early as 1600 BC. South America remained the main source of latex rubber used during much of the 19th century. The rubber trade was heavily controlled by business interests but no laws expressly prohibited

17399-724: Was attractive to international operators. Seven aircraft were built as the Swift Mk II , two for the Japanese Navy, three for the Spanish Navy and two for the United States Navy . The U.S. Navy aircraft were designated Swift F by Blackburn and Blackburn BST-1 by the U.S. Navy; following competitive trials held during 1921, the U.S. Navy chose the Douglas DT-2 instead. The aircraft were retained in San Diego for

17536-405: Was difficult to coordinate and therefore extremely rare. Usually, combat air patrols and anti-aircraft fire quickly broke up approaching plane formations, forcing each aircraft to attack on its own. At Pearl Harbor, the ships were lined up and basically stationary, so the first attack wave of 40 torpedo bombers armed with Type 91 torpedoes , out of 183 planes, were able to hit the ships broadside, as

17673-760: Was first called 'india rubber,' because it came from the Indies, and the earliest European use of it was to rub out or erase. It is now called India rubber because it rubs out or erases the Indians." In India , commercial cultivation was introduced by British planters, although the experimental efforts to grow rubber on a commercial scale were initiated as early as 1873 at the Calcutta Botanical Garden . The first commercial Hevea plantations were established at Thattekadu in Kerala in 1902. In later years

17810-532: Was found to be too heavy and its float struts too weak for operations. Remaining orders were cancelled. On 12 August 1915, a Royal Naval Air Service Short 184 floatplane torpedo bomber sank a Turkish merchantman in the Sea of Marmara . It was operating from HMS  Ben-my-Chree , a seaplane carrier converted from a ferry. Fitted with an aircraft hangar, Ben-my-Chree was used to carry up to six biplanes with their wings folded back to reduce carrying space. This

17947-456: Was illuminated by floodlights for the attempt but the docile Dart reportedly handled the task with ease. Within a few years, night time flights from aircraft carriers would become a routine operation. Data from Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation , Blackburn Aircraft since 1909 General characteristics Performance Armament Related development Torpedo bomber Torpedo bombers first appeared immediately prior to

18084-529: Was later used by the Maya and Aztec cultures: in addition to making balls, Aztecs used rubber for other purposes, such as making containers and to make textiles waterproof by impregnating them with the latex sap. Charles Marie de La Condamine is credited with introducing samples of rubber to the Académie Royale des Sciences of France in 1736. In 1751, he presented a paper by François Fresneau to

18221-557: Was solved by sweeping back the wings. Following this modification, the Swift proved largely satisfactory in flight; on 23 December 1920, it was brought to RAF Martlesham Heath for performance trials by the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment . One requested change, made in January 1921, was the fitting of an enlarged rudder to improve directional control. By 20 April, the trials had been completed. On 9 May 1921, following

18358-526: Was the Sopwith Cuckoo . First flown in June 1917, it was designed to take off from the Royal Navy's new aircraft carriers, but had to land on an airfield as arrester wires , needed to stop an aircraft during landing on a ship, had not yet been perfected. The Admiralty planned to use five carriers and 100-120 Cuckoos to attack the German High Seas Fleet , which had been sheltering in Kiel since

18495-749: Was the first ship sunk by air-launched torpedo. Five days later, another ship supplying Turkish forces in the Gallipoli campaign against British, Australian and New Zealand troops was also sunk. Production of the Short 184 continued until after the Armistice of 11 November 1918 , with a total of 936 built by several manufacturers. It served in eight navies, including the Imperial Japanese Navy , which built them under licence. The first torpedo bomber designed for operation from aircraft carriers

18632-451: Was the tail gunner and radar/radio operator became detached from the formation whilst climbing in heavy cloud cover. The pilot, Lieutenant Grady Jean, asked each crewman in turn if they wished to make a solo attack, which was likely to prove suicidal. The crew referred the decision to the skipper, who deftly dodged anti-aircraft fire and 18-inch shell splashes from the Yamato ' s big guns to release their torpedo. Wicklund had recalled from

18769-399: Was used for the rear fuselage. The fuselage had an unusual humped appearance due to the decking forward of the pilot sloping sharply downwards to maximise forward visibility over the engine, which was particularly useful during landings. The Swift had staggered two-bay equal-span wings that could be folded for storage; this arrangement meant Blackburn was the first British company to address

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