b-17
Mon Aug 29, 2011 3:28 am
fund this on fox news, wreck dives.any ideas of id of this one?
It’s not every day anyone, much less a wreck diver, gets to explore a B17 military bomber. The Blackjack, also known as the “Flying Fortress” fell into the sea following a bombing raid on a Japanese base in 1943. Almost 70 years later and it is still remarkably intact. Neatly submerged in roughly 148 feet of water and atop an immaculate white sandy sea floor, the plane’s cockpit and turret guns are open for inspection. Ammunition belts are still loaded into 50 caliber machine guns whose barrels still rotate and are now adorned with feathered stars, bright, soft corals and littered with crinoids. Swimming or guarding the site is schools of barracuda, hammerhead and reef sharks, manta and eagle rays, grouper and other nomadic fish. Those who make the trek to Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea are frequently dazzled if not overwhelmed by how many ocean and aircrafts have plummeted here as tour operators call it a wreck diving Mecca.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2011/08/2 ... z1WP7YDFYa
It’s not every day anyone, much less a wreck diver, gets to explore a B17 military bomber. The Blackjack, also known as the “Flying Fortress” fell into the sea following a bombing raid on a Japanese base in 1943. Almost 70 years later and it is still remarkably intact. Neatly submerged in roughly 148 feet of water and atop an immaculate white sandy sea floor, the plane’s cockpit and turret guns are open for inspection. Ammunition belts are still loaded into 50 caliber machine guns whose barrels still rotate and are now adorned with feathered stars, bright, soft corals and littered with crinoids. Swimming or guarding the site is schools of barracuda, hammerhead and reef sharks, manta and eagle rays, grouper and other nomadic fish. Those who make the trek to Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea are frequently dazzled if not overwhelmed by how many ocean and aircrafts have plummeted here as tour operators call it a wreck diving Mecca.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2011/08/2 ... z1WP7YDFYa
blackjack is pretty well known but...
Mon Aug 29, 2011 10:40 am
.50 cal barrels that rotate....well that's a pretty rare thing!! 
Re: b-17
Mon Aug 29, 2011 1:42 pm
Saves the rifiling machining step, they just spin the barrels to spin the round... 
Re: b-17
Mon Aug 29, 2011 2:13 pm
41-24521
A pretty famous B-17 at the time, especially in the Pacific theater. Is one of those underwater wrecks that in a perfect world would be recovered, but at this point has probably gone too long and would just disintegrate once recovered.
kevin
http://www.divetheworld.com/Diving/warb ... /index.htm
A pretty famous B-17 at the time, especially in the Pacific theater. Is one of those underwater wrecks that in a perfect world would be recovered, but at this point has probably gone too long and would just disintegrate once recovered.
kevin
http://www.divetheworld.com/Diving/warb ... /index.htm
Re: b-17
Mon Aug 29, 2011 2:54 pm
amazing story, thanks for filling in the gap.
john
john
Re: b-17
Mon Aug 29, 2011 3:19 pm
Here is a video that has been on you tube for a while:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ-hWlSv1pU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ-hWlSv1pU
Re: b-17
Mon Aug 29, 2011 3:25 pm
John,
There was an old (mid 1980's) National Geographic that had photos of this airplane in it as part of a story on WWII hardware on the bottom of Pacific lagoons, and if I remember correctly there was a photo of the pilot on that last mission sitting in a museum's B-17 cockpit.
kevin
There was an old (mid 1980's) National Geographic that had photos of this airplane in it as part of a story on WWII hardware on the bottom of Pacific lagoons, and if I remember correctly there was a photo of the pilot on that last mission sitting in a museum's B-17 cockpit.
kevin