[ARC5] PB4Y2

[dean at laptop4hire.com]

On 21.03.2012 13:15, Robert Eleazer wrote:

> The PB4Y-2 was one of only three aircraft types to carry actual side
> turrets, not observation blisters such as a PBY Catalina has,

The "blisters" on the PBY were added on the PBY-4 model which was not 
produced in abundance since it was way before WW-II and it was still 
strictly a sea plane, you had to put it on a dolly to get it out of the 
water.  However, even some of that model had a waist gun that shot 
through an opening in the blister.  The blister waist gun was 
standardized on the PBY-5 which was still a sea plane and continued on 
the ubiquitous PBY-5A which was finally amphibious.  I know about the 
blister and waist guns because my father designed them as an engineer at 
Consolidated which he joined in 1936 or 1937.  Granted it was not a 
"turret" but the PBY blisters were armed, and my father went on to 
design the waist gun and Consolidated tail turret on the B-24.

Dean / WA6IKJ