Memphis Belle at Duxford
Discussion
Sorry, I'm going to attempt to put my spotter hat on!
Memphis Belle was a B-17F, shown here:
Sally B is a B-17G, depicted by the chin turret. Sally B was painted as Memphis Belle for the film, and half retains Sally B livery with the other half Memphis Belle, if I am right. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_B
Memphis Belle is in Ohio in bits at the moment I think....
Memphis Belle was a B-17F, shown here:
Sally B is a B-17G, depicted by the chin turret. Sally B was painted as Memphis Belle for the film, and half retains Sally B livery with the other half Memphis Belle, if I am right. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_B
Memphis Belle is in Ohio in bits at the moment I think....
Hammer67 said:
Well there you go. Not my area of expertise so sorry for being a halfwit. I`ll scurry off back to the knuckle dragging threads I usually inhabit. Toodle pip....
Don't take offence. This is "pedant's corner" here - we all get pulled up from time to time."Sally B" has only been "Sally B" since she came to the UK in 1975. She was built too late to see war service and spent most of her life as a geophysical survey aircraft with the French Institute Geographique. She was sold to her UK owners in 1975 when the IGN retired their small fleet of B-17s.
From 1975 until 1982 she retained her bare metal colour scheme. The vast bulk of B-17s that served in WW2 never carried any camouflage. She was given an incorrect green and grey scheme to help protect the airframe in 1983. In 1988 she was "back converted" to look a bit more like a B-17F for the film "Memphis Belle" and she was also given a proper Olive Drab/Neutral Grety scheme which was appropriate for the F models that served in 1942/43.
She has retained the Memphis Belle style scheme ever since, although her model G chin turret was reinstalled.
The black and yellow chequers were added to the cowling following the death of the original UK owner, Ted White. White used black and yellow colours on his Harvard - the aircraft in which he was killed.
http://www.sallyb.org.uk/index.php?_a=viewDoc&...
http://www.sallyb.org.uk/index.php?_a=viewDoc&...
Eric Mc said:
The black and yellow chequers were added to the cowling following the death of the original UK owner, Ted White. White used black and yellow colours on his Harvard - the aircraft in which he was killed.
http://www.sallyb.org.uk/index.php?_a=viewDoc&...
Thanks.http://www.sallyb.org.uk/index.php?_a=viewDoc&...
deviant said:
How was the chin gun aimed and fired? I assume some sort of joystick from the bomb aimers position and it was just a kind of point and squirt affair...aim the tracers like a hosepipe?
Exactly. It was more of a detterent. The earlier B-17s were not fitted with much in the way of forward firing armament. The B-17F on;y had a hand operated machine gun on either side of the nose. The Luftwaffe realised that B-17s were weakly defended from frontal attacks and began to exploit that weakness with head-on attacks. The chin turret was an attempt to address the situation by beefing up forward defence. The picture below shows a typical B-17G set up, with the original side mounted nose guns plus the remotely operated chin turret.
Simpo Two said:
Head-on attacks were used regardless of frontal defence. If you were a good shot you could take out the entire command and control system in one go. No point messing about with engines or flying surfaces; kill the pilot and co-pilot and that was the end of it.
Of course, but the USAAF weren't to know how persistent and determined the Luftwafe fighter pilots would be when they decided to fit the chin turrets (later B-24s had them too). They were responding to the pleas of the aircrew who were crying out for better forward defence. In the end, it was as much to provide a psychological boost to the bomber crews as it was to actually improve the forward defence.
Gorgeous planes they are, I loved the film (Memphis Belle) as a kid, I remember being given a 1/48 scale model kit of one for christmas one year, that thing was huge!
My dad liked the movie too, mainly because he (and me as a toddler) had left RAF Binbrook in Lincolnshire just before filming started, as when the base was closed in 1988 it was used as the airfield in the film before it was shut down completely.
He would sit and point out "Oh, that was the hangar I worked in" or (when watching the take of scene at the beginning) "See that road there? That was the road we used to go on to take your mum to work", as well as other nostalgic remarks.
My dad liked the movie too, mainly because he (and me as a toddler) had left RAF Binbrook in Lincolnshire just before filming started, as when the base was closed in 1988 it was used as the airfield in the film before it was shut down completely.
He would sit and point out "Oh, that was the hangar I worked in" or (when watching the take of scene at the beginning) "See that road there? That was the road we used to go on to take your mum to work", as well as other nostalgic remarks.
It was definitely shot at Binbrook.
One B-17 was completely written off when it crash landed and burned out.
Not the geatest quality but this is the local news report from 1988.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G7gqlR9GPc
One B-17 was completely written off when it crash landed and burned out.
Not the geatest quality but this is the local news report from 1988.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G7gqlR9GPc
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