Warbird Information Exchange

Well I am still not convinced that the turrets on the early B-17E's were called Sperry remote control turrets. And for a few reasons:

First, the sighting system on the remote and manned turrets where both made by Sperry. This might cause people to call the bendix a Sperry due to the fact that there are Sperry parts on it.

Second, I found this:

http://www.au.af.mil/au/afhra/numbered_ ... 467643.pdf

Tally ho,
Nathan

Nathan,
What page or pages in this document are you looking at? I've read all 317 pages but there is way too much info for me digest in one reading. If nothing else, that document points out the twisted and often confused path of a/c turret development up to 1945.

I'm not sure there ever were "remote" turrets on the early production B-17Es. I guess it comes down to how we use the terms "local" and "remote". I think the Sperry lower turret in Swamp Ghost would still have been considered a "local" turret meaning it was operated by a person sitting in the turret or at the turret. Where's Taigh? He can help sort this out.

*look at the lower turret dome on Swamp Ghost. It's clearly a Sperry Type 1 variant with the glear plexi replaced by solid panels. Look at a B-17G Bendix nose turret and then compare it to the early B-25 lower Bendix turret.

_________________
Albert Stix Jr.
"Work is the curse of the drinking class"

Which of the 317 pages has the smoking gun?

Bendix ventral turret as used on B-25 and B-24:
1. Semi retractable
2. Integral sighting system in the body of the turret

Sperry ventral turret used on early B-17E
1. Non retractable
2. independant sighting station in ventral blister


Duane

Without going through the whole thing again (for more on this, see also http://www.aerovintage.com/b17news8.htm, December 2008), this excerpt of the B-17E manual is conclusive:



And, as stated elsewhere, the AAF Gun Turret study listed in the first posting is also conclusive as it clearly states Sperry designed the dorsal and ventral (both remotely sighted and ball) turrets for the B-17.

_________________
Scott Thompson
Aero Vintage Books
http://www.aerovintage.com
WIX Subscriber Since July 2017

Nathan,

I found these instructions for the Sperry Lower turret installation in a B-17E manual









I have similar material from an early B-25 manual showing the instructions for operating the Bendix turret.Sorry that the pages are slightly off center.That seems to be a quirk with this particular computer and scanner program.

Well there you have it. The information from Larry and Aerovin shows that the AAF considered this a "remote" turret because the sighting station controlled the gun system via two autosyn transmitters. This was not a "local" turret. I wonder if anyone ever managed to shoot down an attacking plane using this turret system?

_________________
Albert Stix Jr.
"Work is the curse of the drinking class"

Just for comparison purposes,here are the pages from a B-25 manual on the operation of the Bendix lower turret