Turret photos for JP

[Ztex]

This is turret is at the Vintage Flying Museum in Ft. Worth...hanging out with Chuckie.

Thought you might be interested...

[Former Member]

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Last edited by Former Member on Wed Aug 29, 2007 9:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Glen]

Are their plansto Re install the turrent onto Chuckie ? If I am not mistaken she was a Pathfinder and didnt have one but in its place a Radar Dome. I belive it was called a Mickey BUT I could be wrong that is what my wife tell me all the time .

[Steve Nelson]

There's something stencilled on the the turret about "...before retracting." Must have originally been installed on a B-24, since B-17 turrets don't retract (contrary to countless books and History Channel shows.)

SN

[K5DH]

Are their plansto Re install the turrent onto Chuckie ? If I am not mistaken she was a Pathfinder and didnt have one but in its place a Radar Dome. I belive it was called a Mickey BUT I could be wrong that is what my wife tell me all the time .

You are correct: the pathfinder radar was known as the H2X "Mickey" set. It was an X-Band system operating at 9,745 MHz. It was a downward-looking terrain mapping set that could "see" an area roughly 50 miles in diameter from an altitude of 30,000 feet. The radar console was located in the radio compartment, on the starboard side. The antenna radome was mounted in place of the ball turret on a retraction mechanism which allowed it to be lowered while in flight and retracted for ground ops. The radome was made of fiberglass. The retraction mechanism was the same one used to retract the ball turret aboard the B-24. When the radome was lowered into the operating position, the extra drag it induced caused a 15 MPH reduction in the PFF ship's speed, which meant that the crew had to use extra throttle in order to fly at the normal speed heading into the target area. Incidentally, PFF ships were fully armed (except for the missing ball turret) and carried a full load of fuel and bombs. Later in the war, some PFF ships had their chin turrets removed to counter the loss of speed caused by the drag of the radome (by that time, the danger from the Luftwaffe was not as great, plus they had fighter escort in the form of the P-51 Mustang, so the PFF Forts were able to do without the chin guns). The H2X was a further development of the earlier H2S system developed by the British. Some earlier B-17s had H2S sets installed. The H2S antenna was installed in a small radome which took the place of the chin turret. We have some wartime photos of a B-17 H2X Mickey installation hanging on the wall in our ready room.

You are also correct that Chuckie was a PFF ship. Since she was not equipped with a ball turret during the War, we won't "mess her up" by installing one now. We have hopes of someday acquiring the Mickey equipment to install. One of the well-known warbird parts vendors has a partial antenna setup for sale, but it's out of our price range. She did have a chin turret, however, and if anyone would care to donate one, we'll be more than happy to install it!

Cheers!

[K5DH]

I've been told by some others on our staff that our ball turret housing is NOS and has never been installed on an airplane!

[Former Member]

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Last edited by Former Member on Wed Aug 29, 2007 9:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Chris]

Hey JP. Im sure you already saw these on Ebay. Just want to make sure though. Heck, maybe your the guy selling these

[astixjr]

Thanks for posting the photos Ztex. Do you have any interior shots?

[B-29 Super Fort]

Question for all: When surplus B-17s were sold off with many becoming firebombers, transports, etc., was the belly turret always removed or just the .50 cal guns?

[Former Member]

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Last edited by Former Member on Wed Aug 29, 2007 9:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Steve Nelson]

When surplus B-17s were sold off with many becoming firebombers, transports, etc., was the belly turret always removed or just the .50 cal guns?

Usually all military equipment was stripped out an junked to reduce weight and make room. That includes turrets, armor plate, and most interior fittings (the guns themselves were removed before the aircraft were surplused.) For firefighting aircraft, pretty much everything not essential to the aircraft for flight was stripped. Some even had the radio room and tail gunner's station removed..A Yankee air museum volunteer once told me that when they acquired Yankee Lady (a former fire bomber) the tail cone was a crude homemade affair that "looked like it had been hammered out of sheetmetal by a caveman with a rock!"


SN