Experimetal b-17s

[mark g]

i have seen pictures of the yb-40 but had heard that there was designs for a b-17 with 30 guns and was curious if this is right and if so if anyone would have drawings of this if it really is true i would appriciate it very much thank you

 

[GrauGeist]

Your best bet would be to google for YB-40 or XB-40 for any images or detailed info...

I haven't heard of any 30 gun setup though, just the 16 gun YB-40.

The only good drawing of the YB-40 I know of, is this:

 

[piet]

Google Afbeeldingen resultaat voor http://www.327th.org/327th-org/Greg/yb40.jpg

 

[beaupower32]

Cool Pictures thanks for posting

 

[ToughOmbre]

Never heard of a 30 gun Fort. The YB-40 with 16 guns and ammo couldn't keep up with the conventional B-17s after they dropped their loads. The idea (YB-40 gunships) was quickly abandoned.

And where would the extra 14 .50s be mounted?

Impossible.

TO

 

[vikingBerserker]

THere was a pic posted on there that had 8 x .50's in a nose turrent. Wonder if it was part of that one.

 

[GrauGeist]

VB, there was that one B-17 that went on special missions in the Pacific.

Can't recall the pilot's name but he took an older fort and beefed it up. It was discussed here a while back, anyway it had additional fifties mounted on her, too.

 

[vikingBerserker]

That's "Old 666" I believe. This turret was really odd looking, I'll look for it.

 

[GrauGeist]

Yep...that's the one! Freakin' memory...

Old 666 was a B-17E (41-2666) of the 43rd BG and her skipper was Capt. Jay Zeamer...he won a MoH and his crew recieved DSCs for thier actions aboard that bomber...

Here's the thread: http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aviation/old-666-courageous-mission-bougainville-two-medals-honors-13663.html

There's other threads here regarding up-gunned B-17s, too...

 

[vikingBerserker]

I stand corrected, it was 6 guns, not 8.

from : http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aviation/b-17g-20-mm-cannon-onboard-13838-5.html

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

I read about Zeamer in Flying Forts by Martin Caidin. It talked of the B-17 a little but as to how accurate Caidin was at telling a story I have my doubts but that's just me. Zeamer and his bombardier Joseph R Sonoski were both awarded the Medal of Honor.

 

[Lucky13]

That's just nasty!

 

[vikingBerserker]

Doing some more reading, and it was a configuration of a YB-40 that had room for up to 30 x .50 cals. Not sure of that was mounted or xtras carried. Have yet to find any drawing or pic.

Found a blurb about those versions carrying an extra Doresal (3?) and Ventra turret, 4/6 gun nose and tail turrets.

 

[GrauGeist]

Found a blurb about those versions carrying an extra Doresal (3?) and Ventra turret, 4/6 gun nose and tail turrets.

See my post above that has the drawing for the 16-gun setup, including the extra turret over the Engineer's station.

It was also the YB-17's chin turret that was adapted to the later "G" model along with some late "F" models getting the field modification.

 

[vikingBerserker]

I bet that's what they had meant to say. It would not make a lot of sense to me to have 3 turrets up top and 3 on the bottom.

 

[mark g]

thank you so much for your guys reponses that chin turret is nasty. By the way i just signed up and would like to say hello hey and i think this site is awesome. I asked this question because i to thought how could that many guns on there. But then i thought i guess it could be possible because they had a B-25 with at least 18 guns on it. My only thought on howw it could be done was doubleing the guns at every station. Like on the YB-40 double waist guns and the turrets have four like some of the British bombers. Then put some other guns in a few other plces like six guns in the chin turret.

 

[mark g]

Also this one they mentioned i dont think they ever made it it just might have been a prposal.

 

[GrauGeist]

It's a nice idea to have a staggering arsenal of weapons sticking out of every possible hole on the aircraft, but you have to have ammunition for it. And ammo comes with a price: weight.

Add to that the weight of the turrets and machine guns and/or cannon and you have some serious overwight issues.

One of the reasons why the YB-40 wasn't a success, was because it wasn't able to keep up with the B-17s after they dropped thier bombs.

 

[CharlesBronson]

Very good Photos, first time I see that gun layout.