Torpedo Bomber?
While the war was raging in the south Atlantic, the Argentine Air Force & Navy helped by CITEFA (military research) and FMA (Military Aircraft Factory) worked continuously in effort to help the forces fighting on the islands. Argentine engineers modified bombs with a ton of different fuzes, in effort that they were effective in the low level attacks the A-4s and Daggers were doing, there was also the modification of an Exocet battery to fire from the ground, and something that always caught my attention, the Pucara Torpedo-bomber...
The idea was presented and accepted for testing, with one of the prototypes being assigned to be the test aircraft (AX-4 and later A-566 since AX-4 was assigned to do test the use of Naval Mines and the Martin Pescador ASM). The Argentine navy had a surplus of Mk.13 torpedoes, (yes, the WW2 ones), so the aircraft (in quite a nice livery) were sent south to do the tests. The whole point of this was to attack ships while they were close to the islands, covering themselves in the landscape in effort to avoid detection until the last minute, thing that the A-4s usually did.
Its interesting to know that the Pucara was thought to carry torpedoes, in one of the original manuals (thing i have) and some promotional sheets from before the war, its stated that the aircraft could carry a full size torpedo or 2 smaller ones, perhaps in an effort to advertise the aircraft in a maritime patrol role.
Testing began with a single Mk.13, the aircraft took off and landed multiple times, to see how the weight affected its take off and landing distances, drops were done against a cliff that limited with the sea. The first drops gave bad results, the pucara dropped the torpedo at 460Km/h, the torpedo destroyed itself upon impact. More studies came and it was decided to put an "aerodynamic brake" in the front of the torpedo, thing that will stabilize its trajectory and avoid damaging it upon impact. Impressively, tests were successful, the torpedoes entered the water at the 20º angle they needed and continued until hitting the cliff and exploded.
The whole idea of using the aircraft as a Torpedo bomber had some sense, since this meant that the ships could be attacked in a coordinated manner, jets hitting first and Pucaras finishing the crippled ship. But it was an idea that had its drawbacks, the aircraft had to drop the torpedoes at a really low speed and in a straight flight path, thing that would make them easy targets for AA fire. In the end, the project finished during the last days of the war, there was no need for a thing like this to be used anymore, the aircraft (AX-4 and A-566) ceased operations and were sent back to their bases. And with this it goes the last torpedo bomber in history, as late as 1982. Guys i do have quite a large amount of images of Pucaras saved, ill try to share them as much as i can !!
i Hope you like them !
