June 11, 2008
B-17 ball turret
Did you ever wonder what it was like to fold yourself into the ball turret on a B-17 bomber, watching Nazi-occupied Europe pass by beneath your feet, twin .50 cal. machine guns on either side as you spun about trying to get German fighters in your sights before they sent your plane spiraling toward the ground far below?
No?
Well, being both an aviation nut and an amateur World War II historian, the thought has crossed my mind more than once. As a matter of fact, I can remember crawling inside a B-17 ball turret when I was a kid at Travel Town, the outdoor train museum in L.A.'s Griffith Park.
Thanks to the folks at the Collings Foundation -- and their restored B-17 -- take a gander at some video shot from the gunner's position, suspended from the belly of the bomber.
Posted by Mike Lief at June 11, 2008 11:02 PM
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