Warbird Information Exchange

OK, these are for John, Albert, and all of you other parts hounds...... I will apologize now for some of the pics, the camera was having a few issues.... but most shots came out ok...... Chime in on what parts are noted and what they go to.......... Don Price (Spanner on Wix) will also help....... TIA, Alan
Start with the big stuff........ top turret and assy's first....

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Just call me Al.

OK, now for the ball turret pics, both inside the shell, then pics from inside the fuselage........

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Just call me Al.

OK, now they have a big chunk in a box, Don (and myself) are not very good at id'ing everything.... so, we need some help.......

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Just call me Al.

OK, now all of the individual parts, and this is where the camera went south.....

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Just call me Al.

Alan,

Cool pics!!! I'm cleaning the drool off my keyboard as I'm typing this here at work.

I'm afraid I can't help much with the Sperry upper turret parts since that's not my passion. I would suggest sending a P.M. to Albert Stix since I know he has an upper turret parts manual. I'm more the expert on the ball turret stuff.

The ball turret pics are awesome but I noticed that it appears the armored seat is missing from the turret? Most of the individual parts you showed are probably upper turret stuff. I couldn't identify any ball turret "goodies" but if you have additional pics please post them and I'll double-check. I noticed several Vickers Hydraulic pumps that were used both on the Sperry upper turret and ball turret. Both turrets basically had the same power unit set-up...with the pumps being interchangeable between both turrets.

I noticed some of the oblong gear boxes in some of the pics but was disappointed not to see a ball turret azimuth end bell assembly gearbox. This is the gear box that attaches to the side of the ball turret (you can see it in the picture behind the chain gearing. I've been searching for one of these for the better part of 3 years with no luck.



I wish I could be of more help. Feel free to post more pics and I'll do my best to help I.D. them!

John

Don & Alan,

I took a second look at that large chunk in the crate. Does the data plate say "Bendix"? The reason I'm asking is that the bottom brackets on this thing look exactly like the ones for a B-17 Bendix chin turret. I found a couple of sets of these on that huge pile of ball turret parts I acquired last year. Bendix used these brackets to mount the .50 cal guns to them. The brackets for the Bendix upper turrets on B-25's and the Bendix chin turrets on B-17's were very similar. Hopefully the data plate should say what it's for. I've never seen a chin turret's "guts" before but it sure looks like the proper set-up for one.

Hope this helps!

John

Just me again ...I noticed your late-model ball turret is missing the "piss tube" which attaches to the lower right-hand side window just beneath the charging handle. If you ask Albert nicely he might just part with one of his.

John

Alan,
Thanks for shooting the "stuff"...
This is the first time some of these parts have seen the light of day in quite awhile.
It makes me want to clean and lube everything in sight!!!

The armor seat was removed from the ball turret so "Doc" could work on it.

Wisht the twin engine parts and the PT-19 parts had shown up, but we will take what we can get.

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Don, good morning!......The PT-19 parts for sale are over on the "Parts" portion of the forum ....... Look under PT-19 Parts for Sale...... Alan

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Just call me Al.

Great shots, Alan! Looks as if you have all of the parts there for the Sperry upper. And John is correct in that the "crated, three-legged beast" is indeed the B-17G lower chin gun turret assembly. Super stuff and lots and lots to work with there. Would be nice to see a complete Sperry upper put back into the airplane, though I must admit a fully restored unit would indeed be restrictive for "traffic" back and forth to the cockpit and flight deck, and even more of a squeeze for someone wanting to get inside to have a FE and top turret gunner's perspective in flight...

Alan,
Great photos, thanks for posting. I'll sit down with my manuals this weekend and look at the photos again. Every part in these photos is rare and some of them are extremely rare. At first glance, I would guess the Sperry upper is an A1B or maybe an A1C model. Based on the color of the paint and a few other clues, I would bet it's one that was built by the Emerson Electric Mfg's Turret Division here in St. Louis. The Sperry ball looks like a Briggs built unit. The Bendix chin turret is made of the same Aluminum alloy they used on the P-61, "Unobtanium".

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

Is a B-17 turret gunsight a particularly rare item these days?

I had a NOS unit, with a big dent in the aluminum housing, sprout legs and walk away.

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Depends on which gunsight you're talking about. The smaller sights used on the later model waist guns are pretty easy to find. The ball turret and Sperry upper turret sights are a bit harder to find but you usually see 2 or 3 pop up on ebay every year or so.

When you take into consideration the scarcity of parts for both the Sperry upper turret and lower ball turret, the gunsights are usually the easiest parts to find.

John

It was similar to the first photo in this thread. They make a rather awkward display piece due to their size and the fact that if you want the reticle on top, it needs to be propped up underneath.

Best place for ‘em is a turret!

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Commemorative Air Force
Experimental Aircraft Association
Warbirds of America

What are you waiting for? Join us!

Best way to contact me- email my last name @gmail.com

Gunsights for the Sperry upper and lower ball turrets were basically the same with just minor differences. Of course the upper was mounted from underneath with the reticle pointing up and the ball turret was mounted from the top with the reticle pointing downward.

I agree on the awkwardness of displaying these type of gunsights. I'm at least fortunate to have my ball turret gunsight attached to most of the power drive unit but it still doesn't look the same without the shell sections attached.

John