Gun Turrets

Some earlyMkI Stirlings had a retractable FN25A belly turret with two .303 guns, this was removed because it usually slipped downward whenever the aircraft was taxied over rough ground. Additionally, whenever the turret was lowered, the resulting drag caused a definite loss of speed. Some series III Stirlings had a single ventral hand held flexible .303 gun, later these guns were deleted also.

                   

The Stirling I and III's were equipped with the Frazer Nash FN5A nose turret, it had two .303 Browning Machine Guns. In Mark IV and V Stirlings the turret was deleted and replaced by a perspex nose cone.

        

The FN50 turret was fitted to late Stirling's I and III's. It had two .303 Browning machine guns and was less cramped than the early conical FN7A. In Stirlings MkIV and MkV the mid-upper turret was deleted.

The FN7A Dorsal turret was used in the early Stirlings, it had two .303 Browning Machineguns. It had been unpopular with gunners due to its cramped interior and the difficulty it posed should an emergency escape need to be made. The rear doors of the turret had been sealed after a number of fatal accidents involving gunners who had struck the tailplane after bailing out. Thereafter, escape exits from the fuselage were used instead

King Peter of Yugoslavia (middle) inspects the tail turret, a Nash & Thompson FN4 of a Stirling Mk1.
In their fully depressed position, the barrels of the four .303 machine guns barely protude beyond the cartridge ejection chutes on the bottom of the turret.

In later Stirlings the turret installed was a Frazer Nash FN20A

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