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F107 - Another prototype which never made it into production.
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Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress
When this bomber came out it had more guns on it than any other bomber.
Knowing that their fighter escort limited range could not continue on to Germany they had to
protect themselves from the German fighters.
The pair of nose guns under the nose and single guns on each side just back
of the nose bubble. A pair of guns on top and a pair on the bottom. Waist gunners
on each side and a tail gunner. With all that fire power they still lost a lot of bombers
over Germany. They also shot down over 400 German fighters.
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Here you can see the top, bottom (Ball Turret), and waist gunner.
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The Ball Turret Gunner entered only after the aircraft was airborne and always exited
before landing. The operator had to be shorter than 5' 10" and they did not have room
in the ball for their parachute. Unfortunately, if the plane went down it usually took this
gunner with it.
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This is not first-class seating!
What would it feel like to fly over the English Channel, France, and into Germany sitting
like this and looking for enemy fighters. Oh, and then back to England!
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The tail gunner also had to be small. They could only enter or exit through this small door in the
tail. They also usually went down with the plane.
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Germany's V1 "Buzz Bomb.
This is a captured V1 from WWII.
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