Name This...(142)

[drw61]

I think this is a B-24, the tail is correct, but it looks smaller than I would have guessed. The turret had to retract; the B-24 had a nose wheel so an extended turret would be acting like a tail wheel on takeoffs and landings.

[Simon Wagstaff]

Check http://cybermodeler.com/aircraft/b-24/images/caf_lb-30-04.jpg, the angle of the photo is almost exactly the same.

[gunnergoz]

The B24 ventral (belly) turret did retract for takeoff and landing. The plane was still so tail-heavy that it had a sturdy tailskid anyway. Failures to retract were rare but I seem to recall at least one belly gunner killed upon an emergency landing because he couldn't get out...but that might have been in a B-17 with the ball stuck horizontal (where the gunner can't get out).

Postwar studies showed the belly turret gunners were statistically the least likely to be KIA, possibly because it was pretty well armored in the back half that the gunner lay upon, and the big round window the aimed and looked through was "bulletproof" lexan.

[I Earl]

Looks to me like a very early picture of Michael Schumacher, the F1 driver or his grand father.