There was a door on the left side of the fuselage, just aft of the rear bomb bay for crew entry (see photo below). However, as you can tell, it was quite small and the crew had to duck under the longeron that goes down the side of the airplane. I wanted to build the original door (and still may at some point), but for how we operate the aircraft by generating income via people touring through it, I had to make some changes to our original plan.
There is simply no way that the majority of people, particular elderly or overweight, would be able to make their way through that door for tours. I was going to incorporate our current escape hatch that's on the airplane as an upper door, but would have to cut through the longeron to make it work. So that ain't gonna happen.
My only option that I could come up with to get this done this winter was to modify the existing door to accomodate the tourists, while at the same time, trying to hide the old "transport look" that it had. I'm not crazy about this particular mod to be quite honest, but we have to do what we have to do sometimes. I know that nearly every bomber out there is difficult to get in and out of, but Consolidated got rid of that little door on the side right away for a reason. It was simply too tight and uncomfortable for the crew members to enter and exit the aircraft, along with being too close to the ground. Maybe I should say that it's geometry just isn't right.
Just a reminder to everyone who keeps up with this thread...I will not be doing everything to convert this airplane over to 100% B-24A this winter. It's just physically not possible. At least not for me. I will try to make it as believable as possible, such as hiding doors, putting gun positions in, etc., but we still must operate the aircraft to generate income and I must get it flying next spring, or I will disappoint even more folks than I have with the FIFI debaccle. We'll get this done, but it's just going to take some time.
Gary
