[303rd-Talk] B-17 Enter and Exit

[bill runnels]

The door to the left of the tail wheel.on the B-17, was the escape hatch for the tail gunner.  However, he put his parachute and any other equipment in the tail section through this door while the aircraft was still on the ground. The tail gunner did have access to his position from the main cabin. With the exception of the navigator and bombardier, the crew generally entered the door to the right of the tail wheel.  The navigator and bombardier entered the nose hatch.

Gordon Walker <gskywalkers at citlink.net> wrote:  Hello All,

A couple of questions. I had never given it much thought before but was wondering if the door just to the front of the tail wheel was where everyone got in and out of the plane? There is another small door that I can see just to the rear of the tail wheel. Was this for the tail gunner to get in and out? or was he able to go in the big door and get back to his station that way? If it became necessary to bail out, what was the planned exit?

Scotty
_______________________________________________
303rd-Talk mailing list
303rd-Talk at 303rdBG.com
http://lists.303rdbg.com/mailman/listinfo/303rd-talk