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If you have ever seen a shot of the nose wheel retracted, you would have to go out of your way to get under it to the doors. I do know there was a quick release for the nose gear that would jettison the entire system and clear it for use for bailing out.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 ?
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If you have ever seen a shot of the nose wheel retracted, you would have to go out of your way to get under it to the doors. I do know there was a quick release for the nose gear that would jettison the entire system and clear it for use for bailing out.
I've never heard of that - do you have a reference? Maybe Gary (GEEDEE) has some information, he flies on "Witchcraft."
1. Crawl out 2. Pull your Chute 3. Pray you don't hit the tail!That diagram also shows a exit through what I think is the dome for the navigator to take sightings from.
I wonder what your chances are getting by the propellers in one piece if you used that exit in flight ?
Pretty sure it was in Wings/Airpower around Jan 1977.
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.
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.
some B-24D's in the Pacific that started out with the glass nose and had Consolidated tail turrets installed in the nose at modification centers .
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.
Well, it has already been mentioned that the B-24D had a mechanical linkage to open the NLG doors therefore it must have been the turret equipped B-24J that used the "saloon door" on the NLG, presumably to keep things simpler and accommodate the turret. So what applied to one model of the B-24 did not necessarily apply to all of them.
Now, while it was possible fall out of the B-24J NLG doors without your parachute on if you were not careful, was it possible to attach a parachute and jump out? I do not know.