The Collins Foundation   24            April 2011

Here we are at the front of the aircraft and what you see below is the front gear. The lighter area around it is daylight from the ground. Right above all this is where the pilot and co-pilot would sit but getting there is not easy. The distance from the top of the picture to the bottom is about 36" to 38" with no steps. I saw most people turn around, put their hands on the ledge behind them and then jump up with with the help of their arms. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a picture of the pilots area because there were to many people. On the other hand, I was able to check out the front which had a navigator, nose gunner and bombardier station. To get there you have to crawl through that small area to the right next to all those hydraulic lines. Again if you're a big guy you probably wouldn't make it.
 

 

 

Here we are at the very front of the aircraft and this is the nose turret location. I'm looking through the gun sight in this shot with twin fifties on both sides of me.
 

 

 

Looking a little farther down you can see one of two Browning .50 caliber machine guns.
 

 

 

This is part of the bombardiers gun sight. Once they are near their intended target, the bombardier has control and fly's the aircraft. Once the load is dropped he hands it back over to the pilot.
 

 

 

This panel is for the bombardier which has a lot going on. If you want to read it you can click on it for a larger picture which is very cool.
 

Click for larger picture

 

 

Ammo for the man in the front which has 600 rounds of .50 caliber hot lead.
 

 

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