Helldiver

I made some modifications to the only picture I have ever seen of Razbam's SB2C. Now I'm no artist but did as I as good as these shaky old hands could do. But it shows how high the gunner would be. The guns would about 5 inches above the rear canopy. No one use the single fifty. It was cumbersome, and didn't have the rate of fire and would knock all your filling out. The twin thirties was the gun of choice. You got a bunch of bullets out where your opponent would hopefully fly into them. They go by so fast...
There was a hydraulic wobble pump on the starboard side, it had two positions. One was to move the rear canopy. the other was to raise the gunners seat. The seat was lowered by a bunch of bungee cords. I
f Razbam needs some further "expert"help on a Helldiver, I'd be glad to help.
In the mean time I would like to have my Helldiver picture back and get rid of that damn Pay Pal commercial, thank you.
 

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The same type of...

TeaSea said:
Helldiver,

What kept a gunner from shooting his tail off?
Click to expand...

synchronization that makes it possible for fuselage mounted MGs and cannons to fire trough the propeller arc...
only this one stops firing long enough to bypass the vertical stabilizer when it is panned to track an enemy
aircraft on an aft cross-pass... in other words... firing through the propeller arc the shells are fired just before
or after the propeller passes the fixed gun barrels (synchronization)... conversely... the panning MG stops firing
when it passes the vertical fin... (and you can't fire through the horizontal stabilizers because the gun elevation
never goes below the horizon...
 
Not quite right. We could fire below the horizontal to the sides. The effectiveness of the gunner on SB2C and TBF was moot. Principally you worked the radio and radar, did some navigating, keeping track of the Carrier and most importantly, you kept the pilot awake.- Usually suffering a hangover.
In the jet age this is now done by an Officer, who doesn't have to share his seat with a couple of gun butts or stick his nose out in the cold breeze.
The pilots hated it when we ran gunnery practice. The turbulence we caused raised hell with the tail surfaces. The pilots preferred us to keep our canopy closed and be nice and quiet.
So they could sleep.
 
Helldiver said:
Not quite right. We could fire below the horizontal to the sides. The effectiveness of the gunner on SB2C and TBF was moot. Principally you worked the radio and radar, did some navigating, keeping track of the Carrier and most importantly, you kept the pilot awake.- Usually suffering a hangover.
In the jet age this is now done by an Officer, who doesn't have to share his seat with a couple of gun butts or stick his nose out in the cold breeze.
The pilots hated it when we ran gunnery practice. The turbulence we caused raised hell with the tail surfaces. The pilots preferred us to keep our canopy closed and be nice and quiet.
So they could sleep.
Click to expand...

Sounds like helldiver was one of them annoying gunners that kept the pilot from his nap......:emmersed:
 
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