What was the first ship with a turret?
HMS Trusty
The British Admiralty ordered a prototype of Coles’s patented design in 1859, which was installed in the ironclad floating battery, HMS Trusty, for trials in 1861, becoming the first warship to be fitted with a revolving gun turret.
Did the B-24 have a ball turret?
Ball turrets appeared in the nose and tail as well as the nose of the final series B-24. The Sperry ball turret was very small in order to reduce drag, and was typically operated by the smallest man of the crew. To enter the turret, the turret was moved until the guns were pointed straight down.
When was the turret invented?
Origins. Designs for a rotating gun turret date back to the late 18th century. Practical rotating turret warships were independently developed in Great Britain and the United States with the availability of steam power in the mid-19th Century.
How did b29 Gunners see?
The B-29 upper gunner sat in a raised position known as the “barber chair” From this position he operated his sight with his viewing dome above and coordinated the fire of the other gunners. Each gunner accessed a gunsight and control system to enter information to calculate the range to a target.
What happened to the CSS Virginia?
Early on the morning of May 11, 1862, off Craney Island, fire and powder trails reached the ironclad’s magazine and she was destroyed by a great explosion.
Did ball turret gunners wear parachutes?
Since space was limited, most ball turret gunners only wore flak jackets to protect themselves against anti-aircraft fire, but no parachutes.
How many turrets did the B-17 have?
Armed with no less than 13 0.50-calibre machine guns, including two in a new “chin” turret for defense against head-on attack, the B-17G fairly bristled with machine guns. It was operated by a crew of 10, including the pilot, copilot, navigator-radioman, bombardier, and gunners.
Who invented the gun turret?
Theodore Ruggles Timby
Oak Hill Cemetery (Washington, D.C.) Theodore Ruggles Timby (5 April 1819 – 9 November 1909) is credited as the inventor of the revolving gun turret that was used on the USS Monitor, the ironclad warship that fought in the American Civil War.
What was the plane that dropped Fat Man?
Bockscar, sometimes called Bock’s Car, is the name of the United States Army Air Forces B-29 bomber that dropped a Fat Man nuclear weapon over the Japanese city of Nagasaki during World War II in the second – and last – nuclear attack in history.
Why was the B-29 so expensive?
The advances were startling and included the following: a huge new airframe that was a total departure from previous Boeing practice; new engines that had to go through a long and costly development process before they became even remotely reliable; new propellers that gave almost as much difficulty as the engines; a …
What happened to the wooden ships that tried to fight the Confederate ironclad?
The Merrimack (Virginia) was destroyed by Confederate soldiers when the Union took over the port at Norfolk, Virginia in 1862. The Monitor sank during a storm off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina on December 31, 1862. The wreck of the Monitor was located in 1973 and some of the ship was salvaged.