Bob F. wrote:
Thanks for the response. I heard different stories but nothing that
made sense to me. The closest partial story had something to do with
the props slipstream on the stabilizer (H or V, I don't know) gave them
better performance (whatever that means) in high speed, high powered
dives. I could never get a complete story. I even talked with 3 of the
last pilots that shot down Adm. Yamamoto, when they gave a talk at the
Boeing Museum about 20 years ago. They had no idea either.

The slipstream I believe could very well have been a factor although
I've never seen the Schlieren photography from the tunnel tests.
Apparently the direction of the slip stream spiral hitting the vertical
stabilizer from the inward props was causing issues, most likely from
any asymmetricals or differentials in the throttle settings during
gunnery. The guns solution requires a center ball or there's a high
degree of trajectory shift .
Tony LeVier would have been the guy to settle up on this issue. He and
Kelsey did most of the tests on the 38. I met him during the L1011
program. Great guy.


--
Dudley Henriques