Working Ball Turrets

[TheBigBadGman]

Hey guys,

Having recently returned from the 384BG reunion, one of the attendees was a ball turret gunner who, quite rightly, was proud of the fact that he was still able to crawl inside one. He was happily shocked to learn that there a few that are still working. So, my fellow WIXers, let’s figure out which bombers out there having working ball turrets. One of them is bound to be close enough for him to drive up.

-G

[CAPFlyer]

Taigh has a fully working ball turret trainer on a trailer and has been showing it off in Arizona this weekend at the big Machine Gun Shoot out there. He also uses it at the yearly Bomber Camp. The ball on both of the Collings Foundation heavy bombers are working thanks to Taigh as well. I believe that Aluminum Overcast, Thunderbird, Sentimental Journey, and Texas Raiders all have accessible ball turrets, but I'm not sure if they're fully operational or not.

[Pat Carry]

The B-17 "City of Savannah" in Georgia has a working ball turret.

[Scott Rose]

Taigh has a fully working ball turret trainer on a trailer and has been showing it off in Arizona this weekend at the big Machine Gun Shoot out there. He also uses it at the yearly Bomber Camp. The ball on both of the Collings Foundation heavy bombers are working thanks to Taigh as well. I believe that Aluminum Overcast, Thunderbird, Sentimental Journey, and Texas Raiders all have accessible ball turrets, but I'm not sure if they're fully operational or not.

Alas, something I will never be able to experience

[Scott Rose]

The B-17 "City of Savannah" in Georgia has a working ball turret.

If I'm not mistaken so does "909"

[Matt Gunsch]

The B-17 "City of Savannah" in Georgia has a working ball turret.

If I'm not mistaken so does "909"

As was stated in the 1st response....

Sentimental Journey's Ball and Top turret were operational when I was crew, but no one was allowed in the ball in flight as it was missing some safety clips.

[Scott Rose]

As was stated in the 1st response....

Consider me properly chastised

[Jerry O'Neill]

Harland Avezzie just finished an operating ball turret for Don Brooks' B-17.

[Taigh Ramey]

Both ball turrets in the Collings Foundation's B-17G, 909 and B-24J, Witchcraft are operational. We use them for Bomber Camp and you can try one out powered up in flight if you want.

Here is a video taken of the ball turret in Witchcraft at Bomber Camp:



This is a video I shot from inside of the ball turret on 909 on the way from California to Oregon a while ago:



We have a ball turret that I mounted on a stand designed after a WWII stand. This ball turret recently became "fully" operational at the Big Sandy machine gun shoot in Arizona. Here is a video:





And my favorite ball turret video:



No the links are not supposed to eject inside of the turret. We had trouble with the original link chute adapter causing the links to jam in the feedway of the gun so we removed it and let the links drop into the turret. We will fix this the next time we go out. You can come to Big Sandy next year and shoot the ball turret or come and fly in it from your choice of the B-17G or B-24J at Bomber Camp. http://www.bombercamp.org

[CAPFlyer]

Thanks for posting the videos of the Big Sandy shoot. Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons found out you guys were there but wasn't able to make it out. Hopefully he'll be able to make it next year because it sounded like he wanted to do some video of the training rig.

[p51]

The "Movie Memphis Belle" had a working ball turret when Tallichet owned her.
I wonder if it works now?