Glass-breaking hammer in B-24 Liberator

[ciszu]

Hello People

I would like to kindly ask you, if somebody knows, whether B-24 Liberator had glass-breaking hammer in cockpits just in case of landing on the water ?

Best Wishes
Matthew

 

[fubar57]

Couldn't find anything in the Pilot Note's or Field Service manual but I may not be using the right wording

 

[MiTasol]

Highly doubtful as all the glass on a B-24 was a mix of either plexiglass or light armour glass

 

[ciszu]

Thank you guys
do you know where was emergency exit in such a case?

 

[fubar57]

Away from the books at the moment. If no one else posts, I'll get back to you with all the exits for the crew

 

[fubar57]

Here's the bailout diagram

​

Ditching

 

[fubar57]

Yikes....those are huge

 

[GrauGeist]

There were two escape routes on the top of the B-24:
One was by the co-pilot's position and the other was above the nav/RO station (behind the cockpit, ahead of the liferaft storage compartment).

 

[fubar57]

Note sure where this is from, it shows the locations of dinghy's and chutes

 

[GrauGeist]

The top escape hatch was labeled "flight deck escape hatch - use only on land and water".

It actually shows it in your diagrams, Geo, it's just not annotated.

Find the top turret in the illustration and look just ahead of it. You'll see a square opening (with part of the gunner's body visable), this is that hatch.

 

[GrauGeist]

Ok, here's a photo I took of Witchcraft at Redding Airport (RDD) several years ago.

Look closely at the American flag, it's mounted in the open top escape hatch.

 

[ciszu]

Thank you very much, I wonder why there is no mention in book about top escape hatch?
I am interested in passenger version of the Liberator.
This is a true image from cockpit come from archival movie reel.
You can notice a cockpit glass divided on 6 or 7 small parts
What about Liberator C-87 Version

 

[fubar57]

See if you can find this book, 464 pages

 

[mjfur]

Thank you very much, I wonder why there is no mention in book about top escape hatch?
I am interested in passenger version of the Liberator.
This is a true image from cockpit come from archival movie reel.
You can notice a cockpit glass divided on 6 or 7 small parts
What about Liberator C-87 Version

View attachment 848861

Not sure what this photo is but the throttle quadrant doesn't look like anything in the B-24 family.

As for the Escape Hatch not being mentioned, a guess would be they didn't want you to bail out going over the top of the wing near the props or perhaps you couldn't fit while wearing a parachute.

 

[mjfur]

With the bomb bay on fire you can see someone is trying to get out of the overhead escape hatch.

 

[SaparotRob]

With the bomb bay on fire you can see someone is trying to get out of the overhead escape hatch.

View attachment 848906

Or just enjoying the view.

 

[GrauGeist]

Bailing out of the top hatch while the aircraft is in flight (or still airborne, at least) would be especially risky, as you'd run the risk of striking the horizontal stabilizer.

 

[martinu]

In this interview Lt Bryan Jones of the South African Air Force describes how he chopped his way out of his Liberator after crashing on Warsaw's Okęcie airport on 13 August 1944.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7vfmDyNtEU&t=9s

 

[MiTasol]

He used the crash axe - probably one like this. Later ones did not have the hole as they found in practice that it could trap the axe in structure.

 

[ciszu]

Great Thanks for those useful informations. I am not good at listening but he said that he pulled out the chopper axe which was in each sections strapped to the wall and he left through perspect and aluminium frame of the nose. What is a perspect or something like that?
Was Consolidated C-87 Liberator Express(type Liberator II LB-30A) modified of B 24?