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When VMF(N)-513 was flying F7F-3N Tigercats during the Korean war, were the 20mm guns in the wings equipped with flash hiders to prevent blinding of the pilot when the guns were fired, as the barrels were just outside his canopy glass?
I posed your question to one of the guys in my model club who has a pretty good hand on weapons and lots of night fighter references...here's what he had to say;
I did not find any pictures of an F7F with flash suppressors like the kind the F4U's had. They did not use the cone shaped flash suppressors like the Corsair did.
However, in the Ginter book there is a pic and text that state the F7F 20mm were equipped with "flash tubes".
Basically, there were shorten barrels with slots at the muzzle at the 12 and 6 o'clock position. The barrels only protruded about six inches from the leading edge of the wing while the normal barrels protruded 18 inches.
In short, long barrels, no flash protection, short barrels, flash tubes installed.
In the Ginter book the photos of VMF(N)-531's F7F's appear to have the long barrels so I would disagree with the guy and say they did not have any flash suppressors on their guns, all their guns appear to have the long, non suppressed, barrels.
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