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Topic: MK-31 Torpedo Director |
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Frank J Andruss Sr
TOP BOSS
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 Posted on: Jan 18, 2023 - 12:13pm
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Nice look at the MK-31 Torpedo Director used on the PT BOATS. It was used to find a simple solution to a torpedo attack. It solved the triangle of torpedo fire, using two arms, one a target track and the other the torpedo track. It had a fixed arm which is parallel or on the center line of the boat. The arm is slide adjustable for the fixed speed of the torpedo, which at that time was the MK-VIII. The target track arm is adjusted by aiming through the front and rear site. The sliding block is adjusted to estimate the target's speed. Minute adjustments and a closer range attack was preferred to minimize errors in calculation.
Once the target was visually aligned through the site and speed estimation set, the PT BOAT'S heading was adjusted to the right heading and range. The PT Boat would then throttle down to the torpedoes speed to avoid running into them and to level the boat for accurate fire. As a rule the two rear torpedoes would be fired first followed by the two forward. Once fired the boat would quickly disengage. If the PT Boat war was fought during the day, this director would have been most helpful, but as they operated at night, the director was not used very often
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Joe Reese
Advanced Member
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Posted on: Jan 18, 2023 - 1:15pm
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Hi Frank,
Do you by chance have the opportunity to take some measurements on that? TomDK was asking about it (I think, still learning the various directors and such) on the PT-815 thread on December 17th, to try to accurately scale it down for a model.
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Frank J Andruss Sr
TOP BOSS
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Posted on: Jan 18, 2023 - 1:46pm
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Joe this is not mine, but I would suggest you get in touch with Jerry Gilmartin who visits this forum and he can help you with those measurements.
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