Useless (but interesting) trivia

[ShadesOfBloo]

The B-29 used unmanned, remotely aimed gun turrets to defend itself.
The top turrets each had 4 .50-caliber guns (12.7mm)

The Northrop P-61 night interceptor was designed with the same model of turret.

...But in 1945 B-29 crews were using their turrets regularly and P-61 crews weren't using their turret at all.
Many P-61s in the field had the turret mechanism removed, to save on weight and maintenance, and either had had those 4 guns aligned to fire with the main 20mm guns,

...or just left those guns off altogether.

General Electric had some difficulty providing enough turrets for both B-29 and P-61 production.
The last few months of the war, I think GE got some relief. I think Northrop was no longer required to deliver P-61s with the turret.

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[ShadesOfBloo]

The B-29s only manned gun position was at the tail gun.
The original design had two .50-caliber guns and a 20mm gun mounted together.

The 20mm was the less reliable gun, and ground crews thought it was a hassle to maintain. Sometimes the 20mm came out for maintenance, and didn't go back in the plane.

Many B-29s just flew missions with one less gun, though a few crews replaced the 20mm with another .50-cal.


If I remember correctly, this picture shows a B-29 whose 20mm gun was replaced with a scrap piece of 2" pipe (50mm), with a wider pipe stuck on the end to look like a flash suppressor.

The gunner could supposedly tell the moment a Japanese fighter pilot spotted that rig, by the way they'd veer off.

 

[ShadesOfBloo]

The last bomber to use a manned tail gun in combat was the B-52D.

In 1972 they shot down two enemy jet fighters.

In their long history B-52s have been brought down by almost every cause you could imagine,
but not an enemy fighter.

 

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[HoosierDaddy]

 

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The Eiffel Tower can be up to 15 cm (5.9 inches) taller in the summer due to thermal expansion.

 

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An ultracrepidarian is someone who voices thoughts and opinions beyond their expertise.

 

[martinjlm]

There are two NHL players named Sebastian Aho. One was born in Sweden in 1996, the other born in Finland in 1997. They are not related. They have played against each other in the NHL. On one occasion one was given a penalty for an infraction committed against the other. Oh, to have been an announcer for that game.

 

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Nearly 80%of all animals on Earth have 6 legs

 

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111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321.

 

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The average American butt is 14.9 inches long.

(I don't want to know how that knowledge was obtained)

 

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The name for Oz in the “Wizard of Oz” was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z; hence the name “OZ.”.

 

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French sailors used to wear hats with pom-poms so that they wouldn't hurt their heads on the ceilings of the ship during rough weather.

 

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