# Bailout question



## fisty (Jan 11, 2011)

Ok I am sitting here looking at my B-29 i am working on and the thought hit me who the $*#@ do you get out of the B-29 if it is hit and going down? I know the pilots got in through the Hellhole or the wheel well and the rear crew got in through the small door on the side, My question is was there any other emergency exits on the B-29?


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## mikewint (Jan 11, 2011)

Depends on what you mean. once depressurized it is possible to enter the bombays along a catwalk that runs behind and on both sides of the bombs. if the bombay doors front and/or back set can be opened one could jump out via the bombays


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## fisty (Jan 11, 2011)

yes but that would take a lot of time if the B-29 was going down were the domes set to blow off? for easy exit? was there any other ways out of a falling wreck?


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## mikewint (Jan 11, 2011)

The time to bailout depends on how badly the aircraft is/was hit

This is from Hap Hallorens account over Toyko: The Rover Boys Express was left alone over Tokyo in a cold and hostile sky. 5 crewmembers were in the aft section. Guy Knobel crawled back to the tail section to tell the five to bail out. The B-29 continued to be attacked by the fighters. Enemy cannon fire raked the fuselage from front to rear in efforts to bring the stricken aircraft down. Knobel found the tail section badly damaged with tail gunner Cecil Laird dead at his gun. The remaining three gunners and radar operator in back came forward. The ten Rover Boys that remained alive hurriedly prepared to bail out. The escape hatch was through a door in the deck of the front section. The door was opened with great difficulty and as they proceeded to the final step for bailout the nose wheel would not drop from the space as required to escape. The escape route was blocked. The forward bomb bay doors were open so the crew decided to open the entry door to the bomb bay. The crew could see Tokyo below the bombs that could not be dropped or jettisoned. The bay doors were not fully open but there was room to pass between the bombs and the doors. Bombardier Bobby Grace, his flight suit covered with blood was first to bail out. Flight Engineer, Willie Franz, was next to parachute out the bomb bay. Jimmy Edwards, pilot, was next to make his way through the bombs and into the thin atmosphere. Radio Operator Guy Knobel was next to parachute through the bombs. Hap Halloran tried to talk Aircraft Commander Snuffy Smith into jumping next but the bloodied pilot ordered Hap to jump. 

The fuselage gunner's left and right bubbles say "Cut glass for emergency rescue"


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## GrauGeist (Jan 11, 2011)

There was an escape hatch (jettisonable window, port side) for the tail gunner and a hatch on the top of the fuselage, port side, between the top-rear turret and the tail. 

The pilot and co-pilot each had a hatch (jettisonable window) and I believe there was also a hatch (port side) on the top of the fuselage between the front and rear turrets near the navigation/radio station, just ahead of the forward bomb bay bulkhead...


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## fisty (Jan 11, 2011)

I thought i remembered seeing a hatch on the top of Fifi when she landed they had a flag stuck out it.


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## razor1uk (May 4, 2011)

The escape from damaged bombers has always been harder than fighters, even considering the amount of crew afaiu.

IRL, you wouldn't use the 'roof' hatches (as they're mainly for escape ditching in water), during flight, unless I wished to risk re-decorating the 'furniture' on the fuz aftwards of the hatch; balls on fin or sucking on an MG barrel, smearing across a tailplane etc. Although flying inverted....


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## FLYBOYJ (May 4, 2011)

There is a B-29 aircrew manual floating around that shows bailout procedures. I think they were "revised and refined" after WW2 and into Korea.


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