BALL TURRET

(Redirected from Ball Turret)

A 'ball turret' was a particular form of aircraft gun turret mounted on aircraft during World War II. The most popular one was manufactured by the Sperry Corporation.

Contents
Variants
Sperry Ball Turret
Erco Ball Turret
Popular culture
See also
External links

Variants


Sperry Ball Turret

The Sperry ball turret was used on both the B-17 Flying Fortress and the B-24 Liberator as well as the Navy's PB4Y Liberator. The B-17's Sperry was not retractable. The Liberator's ground clearance was minimal and so a hoist was required to lift the turret into the airframe. The Sperry ball turret could spin 360 degrees, making it impractical to store much ammunition outside the turret. Small ammo boxes rested on the top of the turret and the remaining ammo belts were stowed in the already cramped turret by means of an elaborate feed chute system.

Erco Ball Turret

The Erco Ball Turret is the bow installation in the Navy PB4Y-1 and PB4Y-2 airplanes. It serves a double purpose in taking care of any bow attacks on the Liberator besides being used for strafing in anti-submarine warfare. Inasmuch as this turret is of the ball type, the gunner moves with his guns and sight in elevation and azimuth as he moves his control handles. It is a relative of the Martin 250SH Bow Turret of the PBM-3 airplane and has many points of similarity in design and action.

Popular culture


A ball turret features in the poem ''The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner'', by Randall Jarrell.
The father of T.S. Garp, the main protagonist in John Irving's fourth novel ''The World According to Garp'' (1978), is a severly injured ball turret gunner.

See also



Weapons

Firearms

List of firearms

External links



★ http://carol_fus.tripod.com/ball_interior.html

★ http://community.webshots.com/album/551442433VZhdGx

★ http://www.geocities.com/milbios/perrisbio.html

★ http://freepages.military.rootsweb.com/~josephkennedy/sperry_ball_turret.htm

★ http://www.liberatorcrew.com/15_Gunnery/05_ball.htm

★ http://www.navylib.com/ErcoBowTurretOps.htm

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