A precursor to WW2 turrets, this early 1930s B-10 nose turret looks like something from a Jules Verne novel.

Also listed in the tail turret section, I begin with the SAC 7 tail turret here as it was the first turret used in the front of a B-24 when a resourceful repair depot in the European Theater replaced the original B-24 D's "greenhouse" forward gun position with the Consolidated Vultee tail turret, and thereafter the Oklahoma City Modification Center began installing the turrets stateside before shipping to the ETO. Eventually all Liberators were manufactured with nose turrets.

The original greenhouse style
forward gun position on the B-24
Liberator Bomber.

Drawing showing gun locations.

Oklahoma City Modification
Center nose turret installation.

Consolidated tail turret on a B-24J
Consolidated continued to use their Sac 7 for the nose position turret, but the Emerson nose turret (AAF #A-15/Navy #250CE-1) replaced the Sac 7 tail turret as the B-24 forward gun turret on planes manufactured at the Ford Willow Run plant in Michigan. The Emerson turret was somewhat of an improvement aerodynamically, but still had the aerodynamics of a bus. It had a wider field of fire but as with other nose turrets of the time, it did not have an air tight fit with the nose section and as a result leaked a tremendous amount of air into the fuselage. At 25,000 feet over Germany this air could be as cold as 50F degrees below zero.


Gun sight.

Dad's Emerson turret on the
B-24J they flew in training.
The Navy Used the Erco Ball Turret on it's Privateers

PB4Y

Navy Privateer

The PB4Y with 250SH bow turret.
The Martin ball turret was the bow turret for the BPM-5 flying boat.

Nose position of a B-17F.
The adapter is a Mark 6.

The chin turret on a B-17G.
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