On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 19:59:31 -0600, Big John
wrote:

Dan

Don't know if you ever saw the N-9 (P-40) and K-14 computing
gunsights (P-51). Both would leave a 'mark' on your forhead in a crash
(that you survived)

Used to be a 'mark of honor'. Then they started making everyone wear
helments.

Big John

The early F4F Wildcats were not equipped with shoulder straps. In
fact few of the early fighters were. In the case of the Wildcat, not
having shoulder straps resulted in a gashed forehead in the event of a
ditching, as the pilot pitched forward and collided with the gunsight.

During the Battle of Midway, in which a lot of Wildcats ditched, one
pilot related that he manage to hurl himself sideways at the moment of
impact with the ocean during a ditching, and avoided being slashed.
In all the text written about this battle, this one pilot was the only
instance recorded of a guy who remembered what would happen during a
ditching, planned how to avoid being injured, and accomplished it.

Another pilot decided to have his crew chief install shoulder straps
to hold him away from the instrument panel coming, and the dreaded
gunsight, in the event of a ditching.

Ironically, the A6M Mitsubishi type 0 fighter WAS equipped with
shoulder straps, but the pilots often wriggled out of them while in
flight so as to allow more freedom of movement to look around.

Corky Scott