Rotary bomb bay

[AeroFranz]

The Martin XB-51 pioneered a curious weapons bay right after WWII. The weapons were mounted on the inside of this rectangular "slab" that would also form the door of the bay. The whole assembly would rotate 180 degrees around the longitudinal axis to expose the weapons to the airstream. This was done because of acoustic/structures problems associated with opening large cavities while flying fast on the deck (the XB-51 mission).

The same design was subsequently applied to the P6M Seamaster, and the Martin-built B-57 Canberra. The Buccaneer also has a rotary bomb bay, i wonder if it's the same design.

Does anyone have good pictures/diagrams of these systems? I have been looking like crazy but don't have much to show for...   

[sferrin]

The F-101 VooDoo had something similar but with missiles on BOTH sides of the door.

[flateric]

These are from the best XB-51 reference ever, Scott Libis' Air Force Legends #201 Martin XB-51 by Ginter Books. I highly recommend obtaining a copy and looking their other titles, I've collected almost all of them - that's how these books must be made by standard.

[Jemiba]

From Tim Laming "Buccaneer" a drawing of the bomb door :

[flateric]

F-101B Weapons bay door (from Detail&Scale #21)

[Just call me Ray]

Interesting, I wonder why it fell out of favor. Of course rotary bomb bays are in vogue for large bombers, but they're still tucked very much away inside.

[rickshaw]

The Blackburn Buccaneer had such a weapons bay.   I wonder, did any other aircraft apart from the Buc, the US Canberra and the aforementioned XB-51?

[flateric]

F-101B, P6M Seamaster as well - if you are reading carefully

[AeroFranz]

Interesting, I wonder why it fell out of favor. Of course rotary bomb bays are in vogue for large bombers, but they're still tucked very much away inside.

I think the rotary door arrangement tends to occupy more volume for a given weapons load than a conventional arrangement. Structures-wise, the door leaves a gaping hole in the bottom of the vehicle, which requires overall strengthening. I guess with a conventional bay, you can still run a keel/stringer through the middle and split it in two. I am not sure on the last point since I failed most of my structures classes in college

By the way, thanks for the awesome pics. I spent a couple of hours on the flight archive and came up empty handed. Now I have plenty to work with