I spoke to my fellow employee that has been an A&P since 1953, and that worked on Corsairs (F4U-5's and F4U-7's) just before the jet age hit. He stated that the Corsiars he worked on had gun camera's only, but that when the brass ordered it they had a way to mount up to six camera's per aircraft and that sound was rigged via the gear bay. Unfortunately, he also said that there was never a cannon version of the Corsair!
Obviously, he came along too late.
The man that I know of that worked on 38's is still working on 38's. I am waiting for our power plant expert to come down again when I will ask him to get in touch with this other man. He is working on the restorations team on the recovered 38's from Greenland, so if anyone knows where that is being done (NW Tennessee I believe) you can ask him yourself.
We have a man that was ground crew (crew chief) on B-17's in WWII, here locally. He told me that recorders in those days were too big to mount in smaller fighters, but that the bombers had them during PR missions (some of which did not come home).
Then, I was talking to another A&P in Miami that remembers his father showing him an audio recorder that had been mounted in a P-47. It had been designed be a British soldier, initially. It was considered too dangerous to be used in fighters early on, but saw frequent service in the later part of the war. It did not use tape, but recorded on a thin piece of wire. The implications are obvious there.
Still, whether they did or didn't doesn't matter concerning AH. P-51's never fought P-51's, but we do here because this is a game concerning ACM and not the recreation of WWII. There are, however, many gun camera segments out there with sound included. The reason I am convinced that this did happen is the use of distance fading with the audio track. Sure, Hollywood had the ability to do that, but why bother when the segment would (upon release) be heavily overwhelmed with narration?
I am going now, to set up a new website where I will post (at the risk of getting hit with a law suit) a short segment of the last minutes in a 109's life. The pilot, upon bailing, is ripped apart by gunfire from the trailing fighter. You can hear the gunfire, the *snap* of the wing, and the engine exploding as the block is ripped open.
If you look closely you can also make out the pilot losing his arm, leg, and then head in the gunstream (final frame). Why would anyone edit such a gruesome scene for sound?
I should have this uploaded by tonight.
