B-29 crew position, called the "weaponeer”

[daveT]

B-29 crew position, called the "weaponeer station", was created in the cockpit with a panel to monitor the release and detonation of the bomb during the actual combat drops.
Anyone have more info about the location and equipment used by the Weaponeer?

 

[cvairwerks]

B-29 crew position, called the "weaponeer station", was created in the cockpit with a panel to monitor the release and detonation of the bomb during the actual combat drops.
Anyone have more info about the location and equipment used by the Weaponeer?

The book: The Silverplate Bombers, by Richard H. Campbell, should have a lot of the info. It's supposed to cover the development of the aircraft and then some of the 509th's work at Wendover and at Roswell.

I also stumbled across this. Check page 39 for a current Enola Gay photo as well as one from the original installation.
https://www.cooksontributeb29.com/uploads/5/8/6/5/5865941/howlett_interiors41.80.pdf

 

[2banaviator]

The book: The Silverplate Bombers, by Richard H. Campbell, should have a lot of the info. It's supposed to cover the development of the aircraft and then some of the 509th's work at Wendover and at Roswell.

I also stumbled across this. Check page 39 for a current Enola Gay photo as well as one from the original installation.
https://www.cooksontributeb29.com/uploads/5/8/6/5/5865941/howlett_interiors41.80.pdf

Nice find. My father was an observer (waist gunner) on a B-29 and I'd never heard of Weaponeer until now. Looks like it was only on the 29's that delivered the atomic bombs, per that Howlett Interiors publication, herewith:

"Weaponeer's Station Above: Definitely a Silverplate only device. The Weaponeer's Flight Test Box (FTB) as fitted to Enola Gay. (Scott Willey) The FTB for the atomic bomb was installed on what had been the forward end of the radio operator's table in standard B-29s. Cables from this box ran through the pressure bulkhead and connected to the top of the nuclear weapon. The weaponeer, a Silverplate only crewmember, could monitor the condition of the batteries and the various circuits in the bomb. The box above is not the box that was in Enola Gay on 6 August 1945 but an updated one installed for the Crossroad atomic tests at Bikini Atoll in 1946. The original (pictured right – Mike Hanz) has disappeared, probably when the Crossroad's box was installed. "

 

[2banaviator]

Nice find. My father was an observer (waist gunner) on a B-29 and I'd never heard of Weaponeer until now. Looks like it was only on the 29's that delivered the atomic bombs, per that Howlett Interiors publication, herewith:

"Weaponeer's Station Above: Definitely a Silverplate only device. The Weaponeer's Flight Test Box (FTB) as fitted to Enola Gay. (Scott Willey) The FTB for the atomic bomb was installed on what had been the forward end of the radio operator's table in standard B-29s. Cables from this box ran through the pressure bulkhead and connected to the top of the nuclear weapon. The weaponeer, a Silverplate only crewmember, could monitor the condition of the batteries and the various circuits in the bomb. The box above is not the box that was in Enola Gay on 6 August 1945 but an updated one installed for the Crossroad atomic tests at Bikini Atoll in 1946. The original (pictured right – Mike Hanz) has disappeared, probably when the Crossroad's box was installed. "

And just for grins, here's the B-29 Pedestal Sight in my personal collection.

 

[MIflyer]

Take a look at the USAF Museum website They have marvelous section that enables you to view the different B-29 compartments.

For example:

World War II Gallery Cockpits
World War II Gallery Cockpits

This leads me to recall something an officer told me at the dinner that accompanied a conference. He said his father in law was with Lemay's HQ on Siapan and one day he was doing some Bomb Damage Analysis, using recon photos. Officers kept coming in and asking to see the photos, getting in his way. Finally he heard a voice behind him that said, "Well, are you done yet/" Without looking up, he replied crossly, "Look, you guys keep bothering me! And old Ironpants (their secret name for Gen Lemay) wants this done as soon as possible!" He heard footsteps departing, glanced back, and saw he had been talking to Lemay. Why was everyone so interested? It was the BDA on Hiroshima.

After the war he became an inspector of nuclear weapons. The weapons had to be armed by physically going into the bomb bay and he examined one bomb that had been modified. Examining it, he finally realized that the arming team, in order to reduce their suffering in the unheated bomb bay, had modified the atomic bomb to be a heater.

 

[nuuumannn]

Enola Gay's weaponeer during its historic Hiroshima raid was William S. 'Deak' Parsons, Associate Director of Project Y at Los Alamos. An ex-navy man, through his contacts, naval tooling was used to build the barrels for the gun type nuclear bombs, the Thin Man initially and then the Little Boy. Through his connections, the first trials with the Thin Man shape took place at Dahlgren, Virginia, being dropped from a Grumman Avenger.