Camera, Aerial, Sonne S-7A Continuous Strip

Gray painted, continuous strip aerial camera. Camera and magazine only; missing lens cone assembly (either 6-inch single lens cone or 88 mm stereoscope cone).

U.S. Army Air Corps Col. George Goddard developed this revolutionary shutterless camera at Wright Field, Ohio. A synchronizing mechanism matched the speed of the film, as it moved across an open slit, to the airplane's ground speed, producing a continuous strip image. This technique reduced distortion and improved detail in dangerous low-altitude photography from such aircraft as the Lockheed P 38. The camera used black-and-white or color film and a single or stereo lens. The lenses are missing but look like those of the adjacent Solar Strip camera.