a couple of B-25 pictures from North American

Sun Mar 22, 2009 1:35 am

These were in a lot of NAA things I purchased a few years ago and might be of interest to some here...

Last edited by DaveG on Sun Jul 08, 2012 10:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Sun Mar 22, 2009 9:17 am

Nice! Thanks for posting.

Sun Mar 22, 2009 11:25 am

Neat stuff, thanx!
Looking @ the exterior shot, I'm wondering just how many .50 rounds it would have taken to completely shatter the very tightly closed in aft plexiglas fairing?

Mon Mar 23, 2009 11:14 am

Looks like they are doors that open. Otherwise, the field of fire would be fixed and not much help. Cool looking pre-war design though!

Mon Mar 23, 2009 11:26 am

You're correct Django. In the interior shot they have been rolled open, and if you look closely you can see the upper and lower door rollers. On the exterior shot the two upper roller shafts are just visible between the enclosure and window frames. Not totally unlike what Gary did with the B-24 tail doors, just stowed internally and simpler to execute.

I'm glad you shared those photos, Dave--I've never seen such nice detail of the tailgun position.

Scott

Mon Mar 23, 2009 11:50 am

They give the gunner more glass to look through than a downtown dept store front window but then he aims through the gunsight?
Wonder how hard the rear fairings would have been to open against the wind?
Rich

Mon Mar 23, 2009 11:56 am

Rich,

Since they opened into the airplane they shouldn't have been too hard to stow. If I remember correctly, Gary told us the tail doors he built for the B-24 opened in flight easier than he thought they would, especially since they are outside the fuselage when open.

S

Mon Mar 23, 2009 12:25 pm

Second Air Force wrote:Rich,

Since they opened into the airplane they shouldn't have been too hard to stow. If I remember correctly, Gary told us the tail doors he built for the B-24 opened in flight easier than he thought they would, especially since they are outside the fuselage when open.

S

That's exactly right, Scott. It seems (oddly enough) that the airflow actually seems to help open the tailgunner's doors on Ol' 927. That wind does crazy things sometimes. :-)

Gary