[Milsurplus] 1942 aircraft radio installation photo

[Mike Hanz]

On 8/14/2010 12:42 PM, Jack Antonio wrote:
>    On 8/14/2010 11:05 AM, Mike Hanz wrote:
>    
>> Interesting mounting of the bailout bell at top left...usually it was
>> just bolted to a structural member of the aircraft.
> And how loud would a bail out bell have to be to be heard in a B-17?  There
> appears to be an indicator light just below it as well.
>    

Good question.  It's pretty loud, Jack.  I used mine as a telephone 
ringer in the shack when I was in my old QTH and had to stuff padding 
inside the bell to soften it, otherwise it would wake the dead...even 
me. :-)   In the thin air of 20,000 MSL, hearing it might have been 
problematical, so the light was probably for insurance, though it seems 
a bit small for that.  I don't recall the pilot light being used in the 
later B-17s, for example.