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PT Boats of WWII
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PT Boats - General
Post a reply to: Hickman Sea Sled
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[StartQuote] Thanks Ted LOL! Yeah, that and the actual diver one's being peddled on Youtube seem to be a common search hit. Concerning the actual Hickman Sea Sleds, Mystic Seaport has some material including correspondence from Hickman to the Army and Navy during WW2. My fascination from a PT Boat perspective are his Motor Torpedo Boats he built during WW1 (41' and 54') and the sheer number of these sleds used very successfully by both the Navy and Army as crash boats, and seaplane retrieval tenders). Previously (in March this year) I found a folder on Hickman Sea Sleds in the ELCO records at the Sub Museum in Groton. It was this file that got me looking into the Sea Sled and def supports Hickman's claim that ELCO was specifically targeting him. This was the only folder I found in the entire ELCO collection that contained material on a non-ELCO related company.... And lastly, the fact that a WW1 designed craft was able to launch actual manned aircraft using just the boat's speed, as well as numerous other patented designs kind of places Hickmant on a whole other playing field, in my opinion.
Sea Sled Image
This photo of the Caproni Bomber on the 55' Sea Sled is pretty cool. During the test, the bomber failed to launch due to a malfunction in the release mechanism. Later in March 1919, a USN Float Jenny N-9 (with wheels) was successfully launched, and somewhere there might still be an actual video of this particular test. I'm currently working on a 1/48 scale build of the C-378, the 54' MTB built in 1918. I've added the 21 torpedo tube (bow mounted) and will include a Hotchkiss 3 pounder as Hickman originally designed. As far as I can find out, the actual C-378 never received it's torpedo setup (had just the simulated weight forward) and did not carry any gun armament. The government changed the four engines from aluminum to bronze just to make things interesting and mess around with the boats trim (a standard sort of reoccurring theme between Hickman and the US government carried into WW2). It did conduct a full set of trials and was tested specifically by Henry Mustin (Naval Aviator #11) during the 55' Sea Sled proposal to launch bomber size aircraft against Germany. Happy Rabbit Hole! Cheers, Andy [EndQuote]
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