Below I post some info in the case that somebody could be interested in continuing with A-26.
The info is OCR-ed from a couple of books (so mistakes in words can be), and concentrates on A-26 (WW2 period) turrets and gunner in general.
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The A-26 was armed with two turrets, each mounting two 0.50-in
machine guns that were controlled remotely by the gunner housed in a
compartment just aft of the bomb-bay. These turrets were similar to those
used in the B-29. Rotation of the turrets, as well as the elevation,
depression and firing of the guns, was accomplished through the use of
hand controls. Sighting was via a periscope that projected both above and
below the gunner's compartment. The gunner's seat was attached to the
periscope and it rotated via a circular track in the floor.
...
Lr Arden D Connick of the 643rd B bombed a
concentrarion of German vehicles near Arzfeld. After dropping his
ordnance, Connick strafed a machine gun nest and troops in a nearby
village. His aircraft was struck by ground fire, which damaged the rudder.
Despire this, he then strafed another gun emplacement, as well as a
half-track and twO trucks.
As he pulled up from his run, Connick saw that his left engine had
been hit and was trailing smoke, while fuel was leaking from the main
tank. Disregarding the damage, he began another atrack on rhe same gun
emplacement, destroying it and hitting a number of the soldiers manning
the weapon. His aircraft was again hit by ground fire, this time in the
right engine and the Raps. Even rhough both engines had been damaged
and were on fire, onnick continued his attacks. He trafed three more
trucks before it became imperative for him to land before rhe battle
damage rook the decision out of his hand. He finally found a clearing
large enough ro allow a safe crash-landing, bur the ground wa not level.
With a damaged rudder, no Raps and both engine on fire, he managed
ro put his A-26 down on the side of a hill. eedless to say the air raft was
written off. The fact rhat he was able ro carry out attacks after his Invader
had sustained severe damage offered ample testimony to the rugged
construction of the A-26.
...
Debris from rocket explosions struck his aircraft
in both engines. One was complerely disabled and rhe oil cooler on rhe
orher became clogged wirh debris. Riddle managed ro keep conrrol of his
srricken aircrafr, and for a considerable rime flew jusr above sralling speed
ar an alrirude of 200 fr. Several orher A-26s dropped back to provide
cover for him and ro norify Air Sea Rescue should he have had ro dirch
his damaged aircrafi:.
Lr Ryan recalled, 'Yesterday rhey ran a low-level mission and abour a
dozen ships picked up holes and denrs from rhe debris of rheir own
rockers. Oscar Riddle came back abour 450 miles on a single engine.
One major reason for the pilots liking the
aircraft is the superior single-engine
performance. Recently a pilot of the 409th
Group took off with four 1,000bs
bombs and a full load of fuel aboard. He lost an
engine at approximately thirty feet but had no
trouble at all. In fact, he did not just circle and
land immediately, but gained altitude and
circled the field until the remainder of the
formation had taken off for their mission.
Gun Turrets
Directly aft of the bomb bay was the
gunner's compartment. The gunner
controlled the remotely-operated upper
turret, located in the upper aft bomb bay
section, and the remotely-operated lower
turret, located just aft of the gunner.
Access to the gunner's compartment was
through a sliding door located on the aft
bulkhead of the bomb bay. If the bomh
bay was loaded with torpedoes or bombs
larger than 300 lb the only access
to the compartment was through the
emergency exit hatch located on the
Plexiglas enclosure above the gunner's
compartment. On some aircraft a
Plexiglas escape hatch was also provided
on the right side of the compartment; this
hatch could be jettisoned from the inside
hy turning a handle and pushing the
hatch out. A removable camera port was
also installed on each side of the gunner's
compartment.
The gunner's position was at a sighting
station built around a periscope-type sight
installed vertically in the compartment.
His seat was mounted on a circular track
around the sighting unit, with a vertical
piece of armour plate attached to the
assemhly for protection. The seat could be
rotated in either direction by the
movement of the gunner's feet against the
compartment floor. As equipped, the seat
rotated independently of the sighting unit
itself. On later aircraft, however, a power
motor was installed to move the gunner's
seat and it rotated in conjunction with
the sighting unit.
Both the A-26B and the A-26C were
equipped with two General Electric
remotely-controlled turrets, each
equipped with two .50 calibre M-2
machine guns and a General Electric
sighting station mounted in the gunner's
compartment. The General Electric gun
sight was equipped with upper and lower
periscope heads that extended above and
below the fuselage. The gunner controlled
and fired both turrets electrically using
the gun sighting station equipped with a
non-compensating gun sight. The gunner
rotated the sighting station to set gun
sight azimuth; he rotated gun sight
handles around the horizontal axis to set
gun sight elevation. The sight itself
maintained a 50-degree field of vision
through both the upper and the lower
periscope. Some aircraft had 70-degree
field of vision sights. The site
automatically switched from the upper
periscope to the lower and vice versa,
based upon the gunner's elevation setting,
wi th a 10-degree overlap between the two
periscopes.
The guns in both turrets had 360-degree
travel in azimuth. Those in the upper turret
elevated from 0 to 90 degrees up; the guns
in the lower turret depressed from 5 to 89
degrees down. The overlap permitted a 5-
degree crossfire between the two turrets.
The maximum rotational speed in azimuth
was 45 degrees/sec and 30 degrees/sec in
elevation for both turrets.
The gunner could rotate the sighting
station in any direction for the purpose of
scanning. When the gun sighting station
was engaged with a turret by turning the
turret power 'on', the guns in the turret
moved in correspondence with the
sighting station. While engaged, every
motion of the sighting station was
mirrored by the turret(s).
A fire interrupter assembly was
incorporated into the turret design that
prevented the guns from firing into areas
of the wing, empennage and propeller
arcs.
Each turret could hold a
maximum of 1,000 rounds.
On early A-26s with the flat canopy, the
upper tun'et could be locked in a straight
forward position and control of the gun firing
transferred to the pilot. The transfer of
control was done via a switch in the gunner's
compartment and the pilot could then select
the upper turret guns for use in conjunction
with or separately from the other forward
firing guns. When the pilot had control of
the upper turret, the gunner still retained
control of the lower one, using his sighting
equipment. On A-26s fitted with the
bulging canopy the contour follower
protected the canopy from the guns, thus
they could no longer be fired from the fully
depressed position while locked forward.
The pilot was also provided with a
device in the cockpit called the 'tell-talc
indicator' that depicted the position of
the guns in both turrets. With this
information, the pilot could manoeuvre
the aircraft to provide the gunner with
the best defensive use of the guns and to
keep the firing direction clear of areas
protected by the firing interrupters.
Author
Topic: A-26 Invader B/C/K (Franken) V2 (Read 5598 times)