MIflyer
1st Lieutenant
Just read where Robin Olds said that the P-51's gun camera was far better than the one on the P-38. The P-38's gun camera originally was located in the nose, just below the 20MM gun, where the vibration when the cannon fired vibrated the camera so badly that it was about useless.
Everyone who has built the old Monogram P-38L recalls how the gun camera was built into a drop tank pylon. I thought that odd, but now it is obvious why Lockheed did that.
Lockheed took the P-38 experience as a lessons learned. Do you recall the old Hawk T-33A and how it has a bulge inside the right air intake? Well, that was not a molding flaw but an accurate representation of where the gun camera was located. Plenty of room for the camera in that big nose on the F-80, but Lockheed clearly recalled the P-38 experience when they did that.
Everyone who has built the old Monogram P-38L recalls how the gun camera was built into a drop tank pylon. I thought that odd, but now it is obvious why Lockheed did that.
Lockheed took the P-38 experience as a lessons learned. Do you recall the old Hawk T-33A and how it has a bulge inside the right air intake? Well, that was not a molding flaw but an accurate representation of where the gun camera was located. Plenty of room for the camera in that big nose on the F-80, but Lockheed clearly recalled the P-38 experience when they did that.
