Founded by the English engineer Robert Whitehead in 1875 in Fiume, now Rijeka in Croatia, the Whitehead company was one of the most important torpedo factories. Its origins trace back to the technical collaboration between its founder and Giovanni Luppis, an officer of the Austro-Hungarian Imperial Navy, who had developed some torpedo prototypes. By developing numerous refinements, Whitehead was able to start mass production and soon become official supplier to various countries worldwide, establishing production subsidiaries or license agreements in several of them. After World War I, the factory was re-founded in 1924 with Italian assets. Its production systems were modernised and expanded with new research and development structures; in 1935 a facility for simulating torpedo launches from aircraft was also built. These activities led the production of new models for the Royal Italian Navy with a diameter of 533 mm, and a smaller and lighter model with a diameter of 450 mm, designed for the launch from torpedo-bomber aircraft, such as the Savoia Marchetti S.M. 79 of the Royal Italian Air Force. To stabilize and control the in-air-fall phase, the torpedoes were usually equipped with an additional tail fin, automatically dethatching at the into the water entry. The fin had horizontal elevators controlled by one of the two gyroscopes of the torpedo’s guidance system. After World War II, the company merged with its subsidiary Motofides in Livorno (Tuscany), where all production activities were transferred, and it became part of the FIAT Group. In 1995 it was acquired by Finmeccanica, becoming Whitehead Alenia Sistemi Subacquei (WASS), and then became part of the Fincantieri Group from January 2025. The torpedo on display is an aircraft type (Avio) and it was converted into a teaching model in the past through a careful longitudinal partial sectioning. This shows all the main components of its complex propulsion system consisting of a two-cylinder compressed air engine, which drives two contra-rotating propellers, and an automatic guidance system, which controls the torpedo's path and under water depth.

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Technical specifications