The Tucker gun turret was a fast-traversing electrically powered

gun turret A gun turret (or simply turret) is a mounting platform from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility and ability to turn and aim. A modern gun turret is generally a rotatable weapon mount that houses the crew or mechani ...

widely described as having been mounted on

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped ...

s and on some ground vehicles and small naval vessels like

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

PT boat A PT boat (short for patrol torpedo boat) was a motor torpedo boat used by the United States Navy in World War II. It was small, fast, and inexpensive to build, valued for its maneuverability and speed but hampered at the beginning of the ...

s. American industrialist Preston Tucker first developed the turret for the experimental

Tucker armored car Among the initiatives of American industrialist Preston Tucker during World War II was the Tucker armored car (also known as the Tucker Tiger Tank even though it was not a tank). Some prototypes of the high-speed armored car were tested, but no o ...

in 1938. Steve Lehto and

Jay Leno James Douglas Muir Leno (; born April 28, 1950) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and actor. After doing stand-up comedy for years, he became the host of NBC's ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Tonight Show'' from 1992 to 2 ...

, in their biography of Tucker, assert that it is a misconception that Tucker's turret was widely used on US bombers during the war. They assert that different manufacturers were each assigned contracts to develop different turrets for different planes, and that Tucker's firm was to build turrets for the

Douglas B-18 Bolo The Douglas B-18 Bolo is an American heavy bomber which served with the United States Army Air Corps and the Royal Canadian Air Force (as the Digby) during the late 1930s and early 1940s. The Bolo was developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company ...

. In the end no Tucker turrets equipped any bombers. When Tucker was under investigation by the Security and Exchange Commission, a half-hour film entitled '' Tucker: The Man and his Car'' was prepared and shown to the Commission members. Lehto and Leno described the film's narrator "gushing" over Tucker and noted: "A short section on his wartime efforts to create the Tucker Combat Car introduced the Tucker Turret and may have been the source of the myth that his turrets were widely used during the war." A Hollywood biopic of Tucker covered Tucker's production of the turret, prompting reviewers to characterize the turret design as "incredibly ergonomic, effective and convenient".

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite book , url = https://books.google.com/?id=f1A9DAAAQBAJ&pg=PT28&dq=%22Tucker+Turret%22#v=onepage&q=%22Tucker%20Turret%22&f=false , title = Preston Tucker and His Battle to Build the Car of Tomorrow , publisher = Chicago Review Press , isbn = 9781613749562 , author1 = Steve Lehto , author2-link = Jay Leno , author2 = Jay Leno , date = 2016 , page = , archiveurl = , archivedate = , accessdate = 2017-02-01 , url-status = live , quote = The chief of the air corps called the turret “ingenious” and invited Tucker to a conference at Wright Field to discuss the needs of gun turrets with the military. {{cite news , url = http://autoweek.com/article/car-life/highlighting-tucker-tiger-114-mph-tank-could-have-been , title = Highlighting the Tucker Tiger, a 114-mph tank that could have been , publisher =

Autoweek ''Autoweek'' is a car culture publication based in Detroit, Michigan. It was first published in 1958 and in 1977 the publication was purchased by Crain Communications Inc, its current parent company. The magazine was published weekly and focused ...

, author = Blake Z. Rong , date = 2013-12-25 , archiveurl = , archivedate = , accessdate = 2017-02-01 , url-status = live , quote = It weighed in at 10,000 pounds (a full ton lighter than existing vehicles), was entirely bulletproof, featured air conditioning and the "Tucker Turret," whose 360-degree powered dome later found its way from PT boats and LCM-8 Mike Boats to B-17 and B-29 bombers. {{citation , url = http://www.cheatsheet.com/automobiles/the-tucker-48-the-greatest-car-that-ever-could-have-been.html/?a=viewall , title = The Tucker 48: The Greatest Car That Ever Could Have Been , publisher = Cheat Sheet , author = James Derek Sapienza , date = 2016-02-23 , page = , location = , archiveurl = , archivedate = , accessdate = 2017-02-01 , url-status = live , quote = It was out of this environment that the Tucker emerged. Preston Tucker was a self-made man who came to prominence during the war with his “Tucker Turret,” a rotating gun turret that saw duty in everything from PT boats to B-29 bombers. Weapon turrets Vehicle weapons