All turrets on B25 Miss Mitchell now operational - W/ videos

turret nate · **Posted:** Mon Apr 25, 2011 3:03 am

I am happy to report that all power turrets on B25 Miss Mitchell are working! The Bell tail turret is now operational after a two year restoration. The lighted gun sites are also working on both turrets.

I have taken several videos for your viewing pleasure!

Bell Model M7 Tail turret in flight (taken on the way to the 2011 Doolittle reunion):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlBhNb5t3Eg

Note that we have not installed the armor plates on the right or left side in an effort to keep some room back there. We also made the center plate shorter to allow more visibility. I will be installing the ammo booster motors and ammo chutes soon!

Tail turret smoke test this winter (the mount was jerky do to some problems in the vertical hydraulic vein but that has now been corrected):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hbbVwglAGc

Bendix Model A Upper Turret in flight (from the 2010 Doolittle reunion, flying with Bettys Dream - note her turret also moving in the video - and Lady Luck):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItBDqL8KLvw

Upper turret on the ground, after relay was fixed (outside):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7pqqHFPLV8

Inside: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZSX_C1b65s

I was able to identify the intercom wires in the brush box and have now hooked up headset jacks on the turret so the person running it can have coms with the rest of the flight crew while spinning.

Be sure to check it out in person if you see us at an air show (our calendar is on the website). Thanks for looking!

Nate - CAF MN wing
http://www.cafsmw.org/

gary1954 · **Posted:** Mon Apr 25, 2011 3:22 am

Awesome!! Great jobman, great job, the vids are interesting.

B 25 C · **Joined:** Sun Feb 13, 2011 12:05 pm **Posts:** 166

Glad to see them in working condition! Great Job!

Zachary · **Posted:** Mon Apr 25, 2011 8:20 am

SPECTACULAR!!!! Congrats on a job well done!

Zack

peter · **Posted:** Mon Apr 25, 2011 9:03 am

What a great set of videos. It is great to see operational turrets on these old girls well done to everyone who made this happen!

StangStung · **Posted:** Mon Apr 25, 2011 9:51 am

Job well done to all involved. The videos are great. I remember back when getting a fake turret put on top of a B-25 was a "nice touch". To see the real deal up and running shows a level of commitment to accuracy that I could only have dreamt of thirty years ago. Outstanding.

The Inspector · **Posted:** Mon Apr 25, 2011 10:21 am

EXCELLENT!!! A ton of work starting from zip and obtaining and sorting out EVERYTHING from the 'it ain't there' bin. What's next? routing a couple of propane lines to the barrels?

turret nate · **Posted:** Mon Apr 25, 2011 1:11 pm

That has been talked about. Even better yet would be new .50 M2 semi auto guns, use blank .50 rounds, then we could actually use the triggers on the control handles - and ammo would move down the chutes! I think Collings Foundation does this? Their bomber camp video shows the waist gun firing and ejecting brass. But I have been told the CAF has rules against the use of propane or live guns in the aircraft so we may be restricted to the current dummy guns.

The big job next winter is to get the bomb drops working in the bomb bay. We do have the panel in the front powered and working (including a working windshield wiper on the Norden glass on the nose). All that is left is to run a large wire bundle to the bombbay and connect them to the release shackles. Then we can drop dummy bombs or pumpkins!

The Inspector · **Posted:** Mon Apr 25, 2011 1:55 pm

Sounds a bit odd, no propane guns but working bomb racks are OK!?! a trapezoidal conundrum for sure.

the330thbg · **Joined:** Wed Nov 14, 2007 3:06 pm **Posts:** 2713

Excellent job!

Many, many, many thanks for your efforts! :drinkers:

Hemiman · **Posted:** Mon Apr 25, 2011 3:11 pm

FINALLY!

I now have an idea what it was like for my dad when he was in the top turret! Fantastic videos fer sure!!! Thanks much for the postings!

Bill

Django · **Posted:** Mon Apr 25, 2011 3:39 pm

That's pretty neat!

daveymac82c · **Posted:** Mon Apr 25, 2011 6:47 pm

That's great stuff! Seeing the speed of those turrets kind of sent a chill down my spine. I thought of situations, that I'm sure happened, where gunners found themselves spotting attacking aircraft at the last second and had to turn their guns as fast as they could to get a shot away before they got shot themselves.

What I'm saying is... those things don't seem to move very fast.

It's projects/restorations like this, that really do make history come alive and that really put you into the world of the young men who were really there.

On that note I just thought of something... Which I'll create a new thread for.

Peace,

David M (future pilot of Tiger Moth/Harvard/Spitfire/P-40/P-51/P-39/Mosquito)

Pogo · **Posted:** Mon Apr 25, 2011 7:00 pm

Outstanding! There's just tons of curiosity about turrets out there, and y'all have done wonders in bringing them to life with your vids. THANK YOU!!

Taigh Ramey · **Posted:** Mon Apr 25, 2011 7:46 pm

I want to echo all of the kudos above. Knowing what all it can take to get turrets operational gives me a special appreciation for your efforts. Well done guys!

The B-25 bomb rack wiring is pretty simple. The bomb firing circuit uses only one wire from the bomb sight through the intervalometer to the first bomb station. From station number one it goes up and over the racks to the bottom of the other side to station number two and then back over and so on until it reaches the last station. The bundle of wiring that goes back to the bombardiers control box is one wire for each station light. The lights go out when the bomb is released or the release mechanism is fired. If you don't care about the lights then all you need is one wire for the release circuit from the nose to the racks. Pretty simple really as you will see in the diagrams.

I will be happy to help you should you need it but I am sure you all don't need any help.

Once again well done on the turrets. Keep 'em Turnin'!

Taigh

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All turrets on B25 Miss Mitchell now operational - W/ videos

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