Warmtoast,
Thanks for the Link - the line drawing takes my breath away ! A Harvard with a fuselage front gun in a barbette, another in-wing(s), and another (Browning ?) sticking out at the back, after the back half of the "glasshouse" had been removed (any provision of a means to stop you blowing your own tail off ?).
Did this thing
really exist ? Or was it the product of some fevered imagination ? Allowing 232lb for each of three forward guns + 400 rounds ammo each (and could the two wing guns be 0.50s - looks like it on the drawing - in which case at least 100lb (?) per gun more, plus 152lb for the rear one; in the worst scenario your Harvard would be lifting 1048lb extra plus whatever bombs they hung on it. Any effect on performance ?
(Weight figures for [same] guns from "
Vengeance" [Peter C. Smith]).
Harvard normal load: 1458lb
("The Canadian Museum of Flight"), of which [I guess] 100lb would be fuel [say 140 galls at 5 ampg = 700 miles, which is about right], leaves 1358lb, say 600lb for crew, so "pay"load is 758lb.
Article also states:
(Guns (or Gun) was carried close to the wing root in the starboard wing in training roll for target practice on the ranges).
How was it fired ? (electrically, I suppose, there being no compressed air in a Harvard). Any way of cocking it ?
Long Arm of Coincidence: I commanded 1340 Flight, RAF, from Mar'45 to Mar'46 (Any relation to the 1340 Flight mentioned ?)
Wonders never cease !
Cheers, Danny.