Torpedo
A torpedo is a self-propelled naval missile (guided or unguided) that travels underwater to it's target. The term originally applied to static devices that we would call "sea mines" today. Giovanni Luppis first demonstrated an unmanned, self-propelled explosive boat in 1860, and he worked with Robert Whitehead to develop an actual weapon that Whitehead successfully demonstrated in 1866. The term became associated with the new weapon.
Torpedoes had several impacts on naval warfare. In the late 19th century a category of warship emerged called the Torpedo Boat, a small, cheap and quick ship armed with a small number of torpedoes able to inflict significant on heavily armed and armored battleships and cruisers. Since they posed such a threat to these expensive ship and could be made cheaply, a new catagory of ship was created to deal with them, the Torpedo Boat Destroyer. The advent of reliable Torpedoes also made smaller caliber guns on battleships (which were quick firing but had limited firepower and range, as well as requiring their own specialized ammunition) opsolete. Torpedoes would latter be used as the main weapons of Submarines and latter, torpedo bombers.
The word torpedo originally descends from a variety of electric ray.
Torpedoes in Science Fiction
In Science Fiction, the term torpedo is often used to describe space-based missiles.
- Photon Torpedo (Star Trek)
- Proton torpedo (Star Wars)
- Quantum Torpedo (Star Trek)
- Transphasic Torpedo (Star Trek)
- Gravimetric Torpedo (Star Trek)
- Disruptor Torpedo (Mass Effect)
- Plasma Torpedo (Halo)