B-58 Hustler

[AS.12]

Footage of the B-58's tailgun articulation just past 19 minutes in this video.  iI's really odd, I assumed it would be gimballed at the breech end but instead it slews and slides around with armadillo-style annular plates.  Perhaps for feed reasons, or extra reach?

https://youtu.be/rRpHoc0V0co?t=980

[PR19_Kit]

That is VERY weird! 

[rickshaw]

I think you've misunderstood how guns are mounted.  They invariably use a saddle shaped mount, which is attached either side of the breech.  Behind the breech would be various mechanisms required to run the gun so a traditional gimbal wouldn't work.  The plates are there simply to streamline the mount.

[NARSES2]

I still find it odd that a supersonic bomber had a tail gun.

[AS.12]

I think you've misunderstood how guns are mounted.  They invariably use a saddle shaped mount, which is attached either side of the breech.  Behind the breech would be various mechanisms required to run the gun so a traditional gimbal wouldn't work.  The plates are there simply to streamline the mount.

'Breech end', not literally breech!   The saddle mount you describe is exactly a gimbal.

The B-52's M61 mounting moved more 'normally', with azimuth and elevation along semicircular arcs like a traditional defensive MG:

https://youtu.be/d-Tn5JwMEtA?t=28

However the B-58's mounting seems to use some strange camming to obtain extra angles.  I'll check to see if there's a diagram in the Aerofax book.

[Snowtrooper]

The "strangeness" is an optical illusion. The gimball is simply mounted way behind (towards the plane's nose, that is) the last "armadillo shell". When the gun rotates around its gimball, at smaller angles only the outer "shells" move noticeably, but at extreme angles all of them have to move and the outer ones rather radically, causing the tunnel formed by the shells to bend (while maintaining a straight opening for the gun) and causing the illusion of the gun moving sideways.

[Zero-Sen]

[Leading Observer]

Whatever happened to the encapsulated ejection seat concept?

[jcf]

Whatever happened to the encapsulated ejection seat concept?

Proved to be more trouble than it was worth, and with the move away from high-altitude
high-speed operations no longer a viable option or necessary. 

[zenrat]

I still find it odd that a supersonic bomber had a tail gun.

All bombers should have tail guns Tovarisch.

[kerick]

There were several shoot downs of MiGs over Vietnam by B-52 tail gunners.

[Old Wombat]

I still find it odd that a supersonic bomber had a tail gun.

All bombers should have tail guns Tovarisch.

We're all very late to the party but: It's obviously to shoot down supersonic interceptors.

The projectiles come out the barrels at Xm/s, which is about the same velocity as the B-58 is travelling forwards, so the rounds are, for all intents & purposes, stationary relative to the Earth, then the pursuing fighter flies slap-bang into them at (X+Y)m/s & is shot down by stationary projectiles travelling at a greater velocity than that at which they were fired. And, if you believe that, you'll believe anything!

[NARSES2]

I still find it odd that a supersonic bomber had a tail gun.

All bombers should have tail guns Tovarisch.

We're all very late to the party but: It's obviously to shoot down supersonic interceptors.

The projectiles come out the barrels at Xm/s, which is about the same velocity as the B-58 is travelling forwards, so the rounds are, for all intents & purposes, stationary relative to the Earth, then the pursuing fighter flies slap-bang into them at (X+Y)m/s & is shot down by stationary projectiles travelling at a greater velocity than that at which they were fired. And, if you believe that, you'll believe anything!

  

[NARSES2]

There were several shoot downs of MiGs over Vietnam by B-52 tail gunners.

Didn't know that. Thanks 

[PR19_Kit]

The projectiles come out the barrels at Xm/s, which is about the same velocity as the B-58 is travelling forwards, so the rounds are, for all intents & purposes, stationary relative to the Earth, then the pursuing fighter flies slap-bang into them at (X+Y)m/s & is shot down by stationary projectiles travelling at a greater velocity than that at which they were fired. And, if you believe that, you'll believe anything!

One hopes that doesn't make it any less of a 'kill' so far as the B-58's gunner is concerned. 

'Yes, sir, I just left the shells there in the sky and the enemy flew himself in to them........'