> ...Dad was a flight engineer on a B-29 based on Guam and Tinian (sp?) that > was configured for recon only. The bomb bay was loaded with cameras and > there were only two operable turrets and a tail gun... > The Museum of Flight's B-29 has four turrets, two on top and two on the belly. Plus the tail gunner. All four fuselage turrets can be fired simultaneously by one gunner and they are configured so as not to able to shoot the vertical fin off or each other. One of the restored and functioning top turrets is mounted on a test stand and connected to a test board as is the master gunsight and so by holding the sight in two hands and sighting through, the turret rotates and the guns elevate.
This airplane flew 29 missions over Germany and before the Museum acquired it, it sat out in the desert at China Lake CA which resulted in so much corrosion in the wings that it will never fly again. But, when finished, everything will be operational except the engines. All the electrics, all the guns turrets, whatever. While stored, some idiot decided to move it by pushing it with a bulldozer and in doing so destroyed the tail gunner's compartment. My friend SJB (a docent at the Museum and an Aeronautical engineer) took on the task of recreating the entire tail gunner's compartment including the gun carriage, the electrics, the pressurized compartment for the gunner and even the hinged pressure door for access. And he did this out of thin air, working from the original Boeing drawings. It is now complete and functional but has yet to be installed. This took five years, not steadily of course. His next task is recreating the belly radome which was removed and discarded long ago when the plane was used as a duster (believe it or not) so back to the drawings. The dome will be roughly about seven feet long, four feet deep and three feet wide. He has built a female plywood tool with graduated height plywood stations to duplicate the curve of the dome from the drawings but the problem now is curving the Hexcel material to the inside of the tool's surface and bonding it all together. Everyone working on this airplane is a volunteer and a few were WW2 crewmen so the question to me was, will the restoration be completed before they are all gone? BTW, my friend SJB is the person who permitted me to help in three auto restorations which took fifteen years. The first, a '64 Porsche 904GTS restored to perfection finally went to a private collection in Osaka, the second was a '73 911RS now in some Microsofter's garage keeping his RSR company. The last was his '56 356A Normal Speedster which they are keeping and drive sparingly to keep it as perfect as possible. At the completion of the Speedster, the B-29 project popped up so no more car restorations. His money, my time, and a pleasure it was. RLE ************** New MapQuest Local shows what's happening at your destination. Dining, Movies, Events, News & more. Try it out (http://local.mapquest.com/?ncid=emlcntnew00000002) _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new parts see official list sponsor: http://www.buymbparts.com/ For used parts email [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
