Post by Robert on May 25, 2015 10:15:20 GMT -7
Work on the prototype, Project V-139, began in September, 1942 by converting the second production B-17F built. Conversion work was done by Lockheed's Vega company.
The aircraft differed from the standard B-17 in that a second manned dorsal turret was installed in the former radio compartment, just behind the bomb bay and forward of the ventral ball turret's location. The single .50-caliber light-barrel (12.7 mm) Browning machine gun at each waist station was replaced by two of them mounted side-by-side as a twin-mount emplacement, with a mount for each pair of these being very much like the tail gun setup in general appearance. The bombardier's equipment was also replaced with two .50-caliber light-barrel Browning AN/M2 machine guns in a remotely operated Bendix designed "chin"-location turret, directly beneath the bombardier's location in the extreme nose.
The existing "cheek" machine guns (on the sides of the forward fuselage at the bombardier station), initially removed from the configuration, were restored in England to provide a total of 16 guns, and the bomb bay was converted to an ammunition magazine. Additional armor plating was also installed. (courtesy of Wikipedia)
Although the YB-40 was a failure, the chin turret was kept and used on the B-17G.
I bought this YB-40 as a build up model on ebay. It was already pretty nicely built to resemble a 91st Bomb Group ship during the summer of 1943. I added a few more details that I like and called it good.
The aircraft differed from the standard B-17 in that a second manned dorsal turret was installed in the former radio compartment, just behind the bomb bay and forward of the ventral ball turret's location. The single .50-caliber light-barrel (12.7 mm) Browning machine gun at each waist station was replaced by two of them mounted side-by-side as a twin-mount emplacement, with a mount for each pair of these being very much like the tail gun setup in general appearance. The bombardier's equipment was also replaced with two .50-caliber light-barrel Browning AN/M2 machine guns in a remotely operated Bendix designed "chin"-location turret, directly beneath the bombardier's location in the extreme nose.
The existing "cheek" machine guns (on the sides of the forward fuselage at the bombardier station), initially removed from the configuration, were restored in England to provide a total of 16 guns, and the bomb bay was converted to an ammunition magazine. Additional armor plating was also installed. (courtesy of Wikipedia)
Although the YB-40 was a failure, the chin turret was kept and used on the B-17G.
I bought this YB-40 as a build up model on ebay. It was already pretty nicely built to resemble a 91st Bomb Group ship during the summer of 1943. I added a few more details that I like and called it good.