Warbird Information Exchange

In a recent post I mentioned seeing some ball turret remains in a salvage yard in Tucson, and recently had reason to be down there again to do a little poking around.

Sorry, John Peters, these aren't the WWII era Sperry or Briggs turrets we are both looking for, but these are interesting nonetheless. These appear to be the ball turret as used in the tail of the B-52 "H" models that once housed a single 20mm M-61 "Vulcan" cannon.

In better shape than I remember some of the others I had seen over the years. There are three of them left in the scrapyard, and the owner wants $1,500 each for them. Looks to me as if the armament was removed and then the turret was cut directly from the back of the ship. It appears they were held in place by two rather massive horizontal castings in the tail section of the airplane, and the salvors used a chop saw to drop them. Electrical systems appear to be intact and there is a little sheet metal damage to the rest of the ball (can't see any other demil cuts, but then again I didn't roll 'em over to do a thorough inspection...). Tried to roll one over to get a better look, but it was 108 outside when I took these shots and the turrets were hot and heavy.

They're down in the HAVECO yard on Kolb, just a hop, skip and a jump from Davis-Monthan AFB. Yard boss is Don Howell, and he's a good guy. Anyone needing more information on the turrets can contact him directly at HAVECO@aol.com

Kinda interesting stuff for those of us who like armament stuff. Anyone have any additional information on this kind of turret in service? Over the years this salvage yard has had some interesting turrets - GE B-29 and B-50 turrets. Martin 250s from scrapped PVs and P2Vs. Bow turrets from PBYs. Some Neptune tail turrets. That stuff has come and gone, and these B-52 tail turrets are the only ones he has left.

Anybody out there in WIX land have a PV-2 "Harpoon" tail stinger/tunnel gun that they'd like to trade for a B-52 turret or two? For that I could be convinced to deliver!

The only original one in existence that I know of is owned by Kermit Weeks. Tim Savage had one patterned and built by Aero Trader for his project using Kermit's original. I am sure that Aero Trader would be happy to sell you a nice reproduction. They make so much neat impossible to find reproduction stuff.

You are right about Aero Trader, Ryan. They do make some beautiful stuff and they are pretty neat guys to deal with. Carl Scholl told me that this gun mount system was indeed a challenge to reproduce but the end result was impressive. I'm already setting aside funds for turret glass that they'll end up doing for our beast, and perhaps when this is behind us we can work on that acquisition.

I keep hoping that I'll find one hidden away in a little scrapyard outside of the old Litchfield NAF here in PHX that was removed 50 years ago when the planes were sold from Navy surplus sales and converted to sprayers, but so far, no dice. Did get lucky recently and found a couple of sets of 'Poon armor plate and thought this was really cool - until I had to move it in and out of my truck, to the sandblaster, the hangar for painting, and finally into the plane. Then again, I'm one of the few oddballs who gets excited over something as weird as original armor plate....

Cool find Rob ...at first glance I thought it might've been one of those Erco Ball Nose Turrets.

Unfortunately all my $$$ is being saved for more ball turret parts (so I can bribe people to part with them).

John