Arlington, Virginia – Hendrickson Software Components (hsc) today is thrilled to announce the release and immediate availability of Ball Turret Gunner, a shoot ‘em up iPhone game. Ball Turret Gunner is a realistic shooting game where the player flies in the ball turret of a B-17 bomber and attempts to protect their bomber from enemy aircraft until the bomber gets over its target and can release its bombs.

Enemy aircraft will attack from all sides, and the player must respond to the crew member’s warning and destroy the attacking aircraft before the attacking aircraft destroys the player’s bomber! Bandits – 2 o’clock! Climb into your ball turret and defend your B-17 until it can deliver its ordinance over the hated enemies war infrastructure … You have to be fast, accurate, and have sharp eyes to make it to the bomb run.

The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the then-United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Competing against Douglas and Martin for a contract to build 200 bombers, the Boeing entry outperformed both competitors and more than met the Air Corps’ expectations. Although Boeing lost the contract because the prototype crashed, the Air Corps was so impressed with Boeing’s design that they ordered 13 more B-17s for further evaluation. From its introduction in 1938, the B-17 Flying Fortress evolved through numerous design advances.

The B-17 was primarily employed by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) in the daylight precision strategic bombing campaign of World War II against German industrial and military targets. The United States Eighth Air Force based at Thorpe Abbotts airfield in England and the Fifteenth Air Force based in Italy complemented the RAF Bomber Command’s nighttime area bombing in Operation Pointblank to help secure air superiority over the cities, factories and battlefields of Western Europe in preparation for Operation Overlord. The B-17 also participated to a lesser extent in the War in the Pacific where it conducted raids against Japanese shipping and airfields.

From its pre-war inception, the USAAC (later USAAF) touted the aircraft as a strategic weapon; it was a potent, high-flying, long-range bomber that was able to defend itself, and to return home despite extensive battle damage. It quickly took on mythic proportions, and widely circulated stories and photos of B-17s surviving battle damage increased its iconic status. With a service ceiling greater than any of its Allied contemporaries, the B-17 established itself as an effective weapons system, dropping more bombs than any other U.S. aircraft in World War II. Of the 1.5 million metric tons of bombs dropped on Germany by U.S. aircraft, 640,000 tons were dropped from B-17s.

Device Requirements:
* iPhone and iPod touch
* Requires iOS 3.1 or later
* 10.5 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Ball Turret Gunner 1.0 is only $0.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Entertainment category.

Hendrickson Software Components
Ball Turret Gunner 1.0
Purchase and Download
Screenshot (Bandits – 2 o’clock!)
Screenshot (Splash Screen)
App Icon

Founded in 1998, Hendrickson Software Components (hsc) offers a variety of software products and components, including Purify, Email Compass, Spell Checker, and an assortment of developer software components. hsc also offers custom software development and consulting services. The company is based in Arlington, Virginia. Copyright (C) 1998-2012 Hendrickson Software Components. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod, iPad, OS X and Macintosh are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.