AERIAL TORPEDO.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 57, Issue 254, 7 August 1937, Page 3

AERIAL TORPEDO.

MINEFIELDS DISTRIBUTED. TIME-BOMBS ON ROCKETS. ' LONDON, July 25. A remarkable story of a device to lay “aerial minefields” to counter raiding aircraft is described in the “Sunday Chronicle,” which says it has been examined and praised by aeronautical experts. It is stated that the inventor, Mr Harry Grindell-Matthews, ha 9 designed an aerial torpedo lvhich will reach a height of 32,000 feet within a few seconds. At this height, the rocket will discharge upwards of 20 parachutes, to which time-bombs a.re attached by high tensile quality steel wires. The parent rocket is provided with its own parachute. which blows out at the end, thus enabling the rocket to be retrieved and recharged. Large numbers of these rockets would be discharged in a short time, releasing colonies of 20 to 30 smaller rockets and so creating an aerial minefield over a wide area. The cost of the rockets would be a few hundred pounds each. The “Sunday Chronicle” describes the inventor’s experimental station ns situated on a lonel}* Welsh plateau surrounded by an electrified fence and barbed wire fences. In the workshops, it adds, the rockets will bo manufactured soon. Mr Grindell-Mattliews, who was born in 1880, has devoted many years to scientific research, especially in the sphere of air defence. In 1911 he succeeded in establishing wireless communications with an aeroplane in flight. His inventions include an automatic pilot for aeroplanes, control of boats by searchlight beams, and submarine detectors. He has been engaged on defence against aircraft and submarines since 1930.