General Arnold on 29 June 1943 noted the "serious lack of proper aircraft and equipment to support the training", and early gunnery training had used guntruck platforms with guns mounted on the beds of pickup trucks, e.g., for firing at clay targets (guntrucks at Las Vegas AAF were only used January & February 1942.) In-flight training included firing at aircraft-towed targets, and camera guns in 1944–45 simulated fire at fighters flying mock attacks on the bombers. Las Vegas was 1 of 7 USAAF schools that used
frangible bullets to fire at "specially built Bell
RP-63 aircraft that simulated conventional fighter attacks against bombers", and the bullets splattered into powder when striking the RP-63, which had radiosonic equipment for a wing lamp to flash so the gunners could identify a hit. "At the beginning of 1944, flexible gunnery still lacked proper equipment, especially turrets and sights that automatically compensated for the movement of the aircralt and the target, and it also lacked a definitely established training doctrine. To promote the latter and provide better direction, the command established a deputy commander for flexible gunnery within the headquarters on 10 July 1944".
Simulators Harlingen AAF had a
Waller Gunnery Trainer for firing at "planes projected on a screen", and
B-29 Flexible Gunnery Training at Buckingham, Harlingen, and Las Vegas included the "manipulation trainer". The manipulation trainer used 12 towers at heights of and arranged like a B-29 formation. Each tower had 2 nose, 2 tail, 2 ring sighting, and 4 blister positions for students to fire camera guns against simulated attacks by
PT-13 and PT-17 Stearman biplane aircraft. ==References==