1/3/2024 0 Comments Reflector sight![]() ![]() The Mark II was also subsequently produced in the US by Sperry as the K-14 ( USAAF) and Mk18 ( Navy). This factory would later go on to be the center for Ferranti's long history in radar development. Ferranti built a new factory in the Crewe Toll area of Edinburgh, Scotland to build the sights. This new sight became the Mark II Gyro Sight, which was first tested in late 1943 with production examples becoming available later in the same year. ![]() The pre-set number was selected via a large dial on the front of the sight, and the range was then measured by turning another dial on the aircraft's throttle. In the reflector sight version, range was measured by comparing the wingspan of the target seen through the sight to a pre-set number. The optical nature of the reflector sight meant it was possible to feed other information into field of view. The sight sat some distance away from the pilot, so it was safer to use and didn't impair the pilot’s field of view. Reflector sights consisting of a 45 degree angle glass beam splitter that sat in front of the pilot and projected an illuminated image of an aiming reticle that appeared to sit out in front of the pilot's field of view at infinity and was perfectly aligned with the plane's guns (" boresighted" with the guns). Changes involved incorporating the gyro adjusted reticle into a more standard reflector sight system, a non magnifying optical sight that had been in use since 1918. Production of the Mark I was postponed and work started on an improved sight. The Mark I sight had a number of drawbacks, however, including a limited field of view, erratic behaviour of the reticle, and requiring the pilot/gunner to put their eye up against an eyepiece during violent manoeuvres. With the successful conclusion of these tests the sight was put into production by Ferranti, the first limited-production versions being available by the spring of 1941, with the sights being first used operationally against Luftwaffe raids on Britain in July the same year. Prototypes were tested in a Supermarine Spitfire and the turret of a Boulton Paul Defiant in the early part of that year. ![]() To save time in development the sight was based on the already existing type G prismatic sight, basically a telescopic gun sight folded into a shorter length by a series of prisms. The pilot/gunner had to look into the narrow field folded prismatic telescopic sight at the top of the device, a drawback corrected in the later Mark II.Īfter tests with two experimental gyro gunsights which had begun in 1939, the first production gyro gunsight was the British Mark I Gyro Sight, developed at Farnborough in 1941. A particularly advanced model, the K-14 found in the North American P-51 Mustang, had separate projectors and displays for air and ground attacks. Gyro sights usually contained more than one reticle to assist in proper aiming: a fixed one, often just a dot, signifying the direction the guns are pointing, a moving one showing the corrected aiming point, and a ring to match to a target plane's known wingspan. Post-war models added a small radar to automate the range measurement these are known as radar gunsights. The former is measured using a gyroscope in the sight, while the latter is estimated by the pilot by moving a dial or pointer so that a reticle in the sight matches the wingspan of the target. The amount of lead required to hit a target is a function of the rate of turn of the attacking aircraft and the range to the target. The first examples were developed in Britain just before the Second World War for use during aerial combat, and more advanced models were common on Allied aircraft by the end of the war. Currently set to the Junkers Ju 88, it ranged in size from the large Fw 200 Condor to the small Messerschmitt Bf 109.Ī gyro gunsight (G.G.S.) is a modification of the non-magnifying reflector sight in which target lead (the amount of aim-off in front of a moving target) and bullet drop are calculated automatically. To set range the dial adjusts the reticle size to match target wingspan. The instrument panel of a Spitfire IX showing the Mk IID Gyro reflector gunsight.
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