The Avión Torpedo was a liquid-propelled

rocket-powered aircraft A rocket-powered aircraft or rocket plane is an aircraft that uses a rocket engine for propulsion, sometimes in addition to airbreathing jet engines. Rocket planes can achieve much higher speeds than similarly sized jet aircraft, but typicall ...

project designed by

Pedro Paulet Pedro Eleodoro Paulet Mostajo (2 July 1874 or 4 July 1875 – 30 January 1945) was a Peruvian polymath – variously serving as an architect, diplomat, engineer and journalist. He claimed to have been the first person to build a liquid-propellant ...

in 1902. Paulet would spend decades attempting to achieve funding for the project throughout Europe and Latin America, but found no donors.

Design and development

Peruvian Peruvians ( es, peruanos) are the citizens of Peru. There were Andean and coastal ancient civilizations like Caral, which inhabited what is now Peruvian territory for several millennia before the Spanish conquest in the 16th century; Peruvian p ...

polymath A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...

developed a

liquid-propellant rocket A liquid-propellant rocket or liquid rocket utilizes a rocket engine that uses liquid rocket propellant, liquid propellants. Liquids are desirable because they have a reasonably high density and high Specific impulse, specific impulse (''I''sp). T ...

engine in 1895. In 1902, he designed the Avión Torpedo, a liquid-propellant rocket-powered aircraft that featured a

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fixed to a

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tiltwing A tiltwing aircraft features a wing that is horizontal for conventional forward flight and rotates up for vertical takeoff and landing. It is similar to the tiltrotor design where only the propeller and engine rotate. Tiltwing aircraft are typical ...

. Paulet's concept of using liquid-propellant was decades ahead of rocket engineers at the time who utilized

black powder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). Th ...

as a propellant.

In popular culture

* The Avión Torpedo was featured in a

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to commemorate the birthday of Pedro Paulet in 2011

References

Bibliography

* {{refend Rocket-powered aircraft