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Spotted Ass Ape B-24


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54 minutes ago, RLWP said:

 

It depends what you mean by 'casual' I guess. On the one hand it was unlikely to be an approved modification, on the other it was going to be professional enough to not endanger the aircraft. 

 

Richard 

Indeed, so. I eas quoting the OP and took it that he mean a qick job with perhaps a misplaced rivet or three. I agree, it eould have to be airworthy.

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Thanks for your valuable input guys. 

 

So, we can conclude it wouldn't have been a quick fix using whatever was laying around to patch the hole. 

 

I am going to assume,(Dangerous), that a large sheet of duralmin would have been rivetted over the hole in a professional and neat fashion? I doubt they would have removed a complete skin panel and replaced it? I also notice she has a "tail wheel" that looks much like that on an F-4 Corsair? This was obviously a ski to prevent tail dragging?  There seems to be a few variances in the scheme of the front turret.. and the formation lights will add interest.. trying to get them to line up with the decal stencil before even putting the fuselage halves together will be fun. Luckily I have two stencil sets.

 

I also need to replace the canopy side windows with flat sheet and bulge the side windows in the "eyes" I think she also deserves a follow me Jeep in red/white checkers to keep her company.

 

Nige

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2 hours ago, MikeC said:

Indeed, so. I eas quoting the OP and took it that he mean a qick job with perhaps a misplaced rivet or three. I agree, it eould have to be airworthy.

 

Like so much about aeroplanes, it is an interesting question. A sheet of metal on the outside makes sense - but does it need strengthening on the inside?

 

And if this was essentially a bodge to get a fragile aeroplane into the air, would you use metal sections or wooden spars?

 

Makes you think, doesn't it

 

Richard

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I'm pretty sure it was just riveted over. It would already be structural sound...the ball turret rotated around in the hole.

The carpetbagger B-24's had all the guns removed except top/tail turret. The ball turret was removed and left open as a

"joe hole" to drop agents and had a plywood cover over it inside that folded up to the right side so the Joe's could jump.

 

Cheers...Ron

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3 hours ago, aircommando130 said:

I'm pretty sure it was just riveted over. It would already be structural sound...the ball turret rotated around in the hole.

The carpetbagger B-24's had all the guns removed except top/tail turret. The ball turret was removed and left open as a

"joe hole" to drop agents and had a plywood cover over it inside that folded up to the right side so the Joe's could jump.

 

Cheers...Ron

Wow.. I am on a learning curve here!!

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9 hours ago, adameliclem said:


This shot might be useful. On this ship, it appears that the skinning covered the hole where the turret had been and overlapped a small portion of the fuselage’s side.

 

448th-b24-jpg.294769
 

Cheers,

Adam

"Might be useful"?? That's bloody awesome thank you. This is THE first pic I've seen that shows this area.

 

I also not this has no "tail wheel". 

 

Nige

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Just an educated guess here... but that tail wheel is likely to help save the airframe as the CG shifted when they started removing things, meaning that she'd easily tilt back. In the Prowler we flew around with about 150 lbs of steel plates that were just bolted to a bulkhead back by the horizontal stabs, because they'd removed something years earlier and to keep the a/c w/in limits they added the plates. Weight and balance records are a big deal in aviation maintenance and are checked regularly. So I'm guessing that removing turrets and guns, bomb sights, perhaps even O2 systems really messed up the CG. Add to it a war weary airframe, and I'm sure they were dicey to fly.

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8 hours ago, Nigels modelling bench said:

This is THE first pic I've seen that shows this area.

 


Thank goodness for in-flight shots, eh? I’ll look around for more later. 

 

Wondering about the skinning, it struck me that it might have been simpler to cannibalize a portion of the ventral skinning from a derelict Liberator, from an area aft of the turret, than to cut and shape virgin sheets of Alclad. Essential contours would already be present. 
 

5 hours ago, easixpedro said:

Just an educated guess here... but that tail wheel is likely to help save the airframe as the CG shifted when they started removing things, meaning that she'd easily tilt back. In the Prowler we flew around with about 150 lbs of steel plates that were just bolted to a bulkhead back by the horizontal stabs, because they'd removed something years earlier and to keep the a/c w/in limits they added the plates. Weight and balance records are a big deal in aviation maintenance and are checked regularly. So I'm guessing that removing turrets and guns, bomb sights, perhaps even O2 systems really messed up the CG. Add to it a war weary airframe, and I'm sure they were dicey to fly.


Good points. The lost weight of the gunners and all their flying gear would have been considerable, too. 
 

Adam

 

EDIT: I found a higher-resolution image of “You Cawn’t Miss it” at the American Air Museum’s site. Lots of great stuff there.

 

FRE_001781.jpg?_ga=2.143970044.852152886

Edited by adameliclem
Found something better
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