Palm Springs Air Museum by Neil Mouneimne
	At the Palm Springs Air Museum last weekend, there was a modest "airshow" event where the crews of B-17's and B-24's came by to share stories, talk about their experiences, and to show off "Miss Angela", one of the few operational B-17's left in the world. We were fortunate enough to be able to tour around *inside* the legendary bomber, and afterwards were treated watching it fly a couple circuits of the airfield. Since this was a very small show, we had the unusual priviledge of having immediate access to the aircraft and crew the entire time. Following are some pictures from the event. Apologies must be made in advance for the quality of some of the pictures. These were taken with my first outing with a digital camera and many were under rushed conditions. A mixed presentation of the original crew of "Miss Angela" and some B-24 crewmen. The speaker was a ball-turret gunner, and was explaining the particular problem where it was virtually impossible for the ball gunner to get out without assistance. The following is roughly paraphrased from his story: "After realizing the situation, I turned to my fellow crewmen and said, 'Guys, we have got to have a working agreement here. If we go down, someone is going to have to get me out before anyone jumps. If I see any parachutes coming out of the plane, so help me I'll shoot you down myself." (A round of nervous laughter from the audience ensues) "That's for two very good reasons. One, that's my butt in there, and two, I'm a good old Southern boy - and you are all a bunch of damn Yankees." View forward through the nose bubble of the B-17. The Norden bombsight and forward gunnery controls are in the foreground, and a P-38 Lightning and F7F Tigercat are visible in the background through the bubble distortions. Click to continue		To get to the cockpit from the front hatch, you have to crawl through a very cramped tunnel that connects the nose and cockpit. Just about everything except the radio equipment is vintage. The bubble on top of the nose there is used for celestial navigation. The crew claims that many B-17's were equipped with such a bubble despite their rarity in Hollywood productions. Directly behind the pilots is the dorsal turret. This is perhaps the least cramped spot in the whole bomber. This is what the pilots would see if they looked directly aft. First is the narrow catwalk directly over the bomb bay. It isn't big enough to put two feet side by side, really, but at least there are a couple of metal handhold rails and rubber netting to help keep your footing on. Behind that the hanging assembly for the ball turret is plainly visible. One of the two waist gunner positions. The port is "glassed in" now as a creature comfort for the crew, but the gun certainly looks like it wouldn't take much to put into action. The actual ball turret assembly as viewed from above. It's difficult to imagine just how could the gunner stand the cramped claustrophobic conditions in the ball for extended periods of time, but it's certainly easy to understand how it can be difficult to extract oneself once inside. The new crew of Miss Angela starts up "Doc". Yes, all the stories you've heard of how the engines belch great volumes of smoke on startup are true. Miss Angela isn't going to be collecting any EPA certificates. Note the ground crewman with the fire extinguisher at the ready. Go to Page Two
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