How to bail out from a bomber (B-24)?

[pbehn]

I think the same logic would have applied to B-52 and B-47 pilots. On the other hand, there were (and are) significant non-combat losses, frequently around take-off and landing, and not having flight crew die on a ferry or training flight would be beneficial.

I agree, but as I said for a long time into the jet age, even with ejector seats they were only of use above a certain altitude.

 

[windhund116]

Family friend Al Shower lead the 467BG of the 8AF. AFAIK, his unit had the least number of turnbacks. He told me he never bailed from his ship, though severely damaged on many missions.

He signed my Freeman book.

"Rackheath Aggies"

 

[windhund116]

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

There's always Nicholas Alkemade.

 

[Swede Ware]

I wonder if there are special rules if the command to bail-out is given by the pilot?
I found a picture on the Internet that shows the positions where the crew could or should bail out of a Liberator (B-24) bomber. The possible places are:
front wheel door, bomb bay (front & back) and the camera hatch at the end of the airplane.
I think the crew did some training on how someone has to do this because the techniques at the bomb bay and maybe the camera hatch would not be the same.

How dangerous would this procedure be? And how big are the chances to get hurt when leaving the plane?

I am asking this because I am following a story where the bomb bay door was jammed and only the camera hole could be used. The airplane itself wouldn't fly straight because of the damage she got. Therefore I assume that the "bailing out" procedure wasn't an easy one.

..Not an emergency situation but we were jumping the -24 in Illinois at the World Free Fall Convention............u tube World Freefall Convention - AOL Video Search Results

 

[JDCAVE]

In Bomber Command, there was a drill that was practiced regularly. Some crews practised it daily when not on ops. I have a PDF of a mimeographed copy for both dinghy (ditching) and parachute drill for those interested. The Lancaster was a particularly difficult aircraft for the pilot to bail out of. The fatality rate was higher for the Lancaster crews than for those from many other aircraft types.

I cannot comment on parachutes except to say the the pilot wore a seat type parachute that they sat on during the operation. Later in the war the rear gunner also used a seat-type chute.

Jim

 

[MIflyer]

I read that on the B-24 the nosewheel doors were spring loaded and free swinging. The nosewheel simply pushed the doors open when going down and up. The crew in the nose compartment had to be careful where they stepped; the nosegear doors were effectively a trap door. One B-24 pilot described a formation flight in which one airplane's nose gunner had relaxed by laying atop the doors, his parachute for a pillow. He fell through the doors, followed by the magazine he had planned to read - and his parachute.

 

[Timmy P3B FCO]

As a tube rat in P-3's, we routinely practiced bail out drills to include putting on a parachute in 1 minute and meeting by main cabin door. Unlike the WWII aircraft, the main cabin door in a P-3 is huge. All drills were practiced straight and level, have my doubts we could of got out of aircraft if it is anything but straight and level. I also worked with a B-52 electronic tech (weapons system) who sometimes had ride in a B-52 while trouble shooting the electronic gear. His bail out drill was wait until one of the downward firing ejection seats departed aircraft, take tool box and throw out that hole ( the tool box as it traveled the length of the aircraft would removed the antennas you might get hung up on) and immediately follow the tool box out the same hole........................... (dont forget to pull rip cord when free of aircraft)

Timmy
P-3B FCO
P-3C IFT

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

I read that on the B-24 the nosewheel doors were spring loaded and free swinging. The nosewheel simply pushed the doors open when going down and up. The crew in the nose compartment had to be careful where they stepped; the nosegear doors were effectively a trap door. One B-24 pilot described a formation flight in which one airplane's nose gunner had relaxed by laying atop the doors, his parachute for a pillow. He fell through the doors, followed by the magazine he had planned to read - and his parachute.

Remember where you read this?

I know that Ambrose (or his TAs, lol) wrote in The Wild Blue that the skin on a -24 was thin enough to step through if one stumbled. I don't know how true or false that is. But I'd be surprised if such an important system as nose gear on an aircraft that already had plenty of hydraulic power would be itself left unpowered and passive.

 

[tyrodtom]

The access to the nose wheel compartment is under, and back of the navigator's table, I don't see how anyone could step on the nose wheel doors by accident.
You had to crawl under that table to get out.
Maybe every model of the B-24 doesn't have the same internal layout.

Could that forward escape be used if the nose wheel was down ?
.

 

[GrauGeist]

Not sure about that B-24 story - with the nose-gear retracted, there is no room to get to the gear's bay doors.
The gear (and tire) fill the entire compartment, so there's little room to get around the gear assembly and access the doors.

 

[GrauGeist]

Could that forward escape be used if the nose wheel was down ?

It's a tight squeeze as the radio/navigation deck is directly above, so while a person could get in there, I don't think it could be done if they're wearing a parachute.

 

[MIflyer]

Remember where you read this?

Pretty sure it was in Wings/Airpower around Jan 1977. I think I read it while we were driving down to a meeting in GD in FW, the trip where an ice storm hit and we ended up driving back to OK over icy roads at 20 MPH in car with no working heater.

I recall that in the same article the author said that they got B-24's with big bubbles in the side windows. I guess that was done to aid the ASW aircraft visual search but it really screwed things up when trying to fly formation so they replaced them with flat Plexiglas panels.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Pretty sure it was in Wings/Airpower around Jan 1977. I think I read it while we were driving down to a meeting in GD in FW, the trip where an ice storm hit and we ended up driving back to OK over icy roads at 20 MPH in car with no working heater.

I recall that in the same article the author said that they got B-24's with big bubbles in the side windows. I guess that was done to aid the ASW aircraft visual search but it really screwed thinsg up when trying to fly formation so they replaced them with flat Plexiglas panels.

I expect I have some reading to do, then. Very surprising.

ETA: Reading the manual for the -D model, pilots are told on p. 20 "DON'T fail to have the nose wheel accumulator checked before take-off."

 

[tyrodtom]

It's a tight squeeze as the radio/navigation deck is directly above, so while a person could get in there, I don't think it could be done if they're wearing a parachute.[/QUOTE

The nose wheel door is listed as the preferred emergency exit for the crew in the forward compartment.
When the nose wheel is up, the wheel is in the back of the nose gear compartment, and the nose gear struts are out of the way, plenty of room to bail out below the wheel.
But when it's down, the wheel and it's struts appear to make it almost impossible to go that route.

Otherwise that forward crew only has a crawl space to get to the bomb bay exit.

 

[T Bolt]

Getting back to the co-pilot not pulling his rip cord, my father was a bomb strike photographer on a B-24 when it was shot down over Austria in Feb '45. When he bailed out he went out of the camera hatch and cracked his head real good on the back edge of the hatch. Fortunately he did not loose consciousness or I would not be here.

 

[Glider]

I agree, but as I said for a long time into the jet age, even with ejector seats they were only of use above a certain altitude.

Many years ago I had a number of flights in a Hunter. On one of them we were going to be at 50ft and I noted that the seats were only rated to 150ft. It was pointed out (with a big sigh) that if something went wrong and we lost height we would be in the water before we could react, if we went up, at the speed we were going we would easily get to 150ft. So what was I worrying about?

I suppose it's one way of looking at it.

 

[special ed]

One day in 1960 a buddy and I sandbagged a ride from Davis-Monthan to Barksdale in an empty C-97. The pilot and copilot looked the same age as us. The redeeming fact was the crew chief was as old as our fathers. The emergency brief was, " The intercom and bailout bell are inop and the engine firebottles can't be charged because nobody has that old equipment. So if you see us running from the cockpit to the back, get in line."

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Many years ago I had a number of flights in a Hunter. On one of them we were going to be at 50ft and I noted that the seats were only rated to 150ft. It was pointed out (with a big sigh) that if something went wrong and we lost height we would be in the water before we could react, if we went up, at the speed we were going we would easily get to 150ft. So what was I worrying about?

I suppose it's one way of looking at it.

Where's a "nervous grin" smiley when you need it?

 

[MIflyer]