B-29 Central Fire Control

[varsity07840]

One thing has never been clear to me. Did the upper "barber chair" sighting station rotate in conjunction with the rear upper turret or was it moved separately by the gunner?

 

[Joe Broady]

One thing has never been clear to me. Did the upper "barber chair" sighting station rotate in conjunction with the rear upper turret or was it moved separately by the gunner?

He just uses his legs. "The gunner uses the platform on which his feet rest to facilitate rotating his swivel seat." (T. O. No. 11-70A-1, The Central Station Fire Control System, 5 December 1944)

A motor driven seat slaved to the turret wouldn't work, since the turret only follows the sight when the gunner closes the action switch. "Since the sight is so designed that the gunner can scan a large area of sky from his swivel-type seat by merely turning his head, instead of having to peer continually through the sight, there is no need to have the turrets constantly positioning themselves with the sight. When a target is sighted, however, the gunner can quickly swing the sight to bear and at the same time, by depressing the action switch on his right-hand control grip, can apply power to the turrets that will immediately bring them into position."

Although that passage says "turrets", in reality the upper sighting station has control of the forward upper turret only when the man at the nose station (who has primary control of that turret) throws a switch to release control.