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Reflector sights as aircraft gun-sights have many advantages. The pilot/gunner need not position their head to align the sight line precisely as they did in two-point mechanical sights, head position is only limited to that determined by the optics in the collimator, mostly by the diameter of the collimator lens.
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 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. [ 5 ]
Reflector sights were first used as a weapon sight in German aircraft towards the end of World War I. Over the years they became more sophisticated, adding lead computing gyroscopes and electronics (the World War II Gyro gunsight ) [ 8 ] radar range finding and other flight information in the 1950s and 1960s, eventually becoming the modern head ...
The reflector gun sight patents were later assigned to Barr and Stroud and used in the guns sights they supplied to the RAF during World War II including the GM2 reflector fixed sights used in fighters from 1938 and the Mk III reflector free sights used in bombers and adopted by the US Navy as the Mark 9.
In 1926 Barr & Stroud produced the prototype GD1 reflector gunsight for aircraft based on a 1900 patent awarded to Sir Howard Grubb. The sight was extensively redesigned and issued to the Royal Air Force as the GD2B in 1927. By 1934 the sight had developed into the GD5 and again into the GD12.
The wire sights of the earlier models were replaced by reflector sights indicating the location the bombs would hit if dropped at that instant. As the sighting head lacked the vector computer it was much smaller than earlier models, which allowed it to be easily mounted on a stabilized platform.
The gunner released the latch and removed the cover which allowed space to clear the action. Small ammunition boxes rested on the top of the turret and additional ammunition belts fed the turret by means of a chute system. A reflector sight was hung from the top of the turret, positioned roughly between the gunner's feet.
The sight head replaced the older wire crosshairs with a modern reflector sight that was easy to see at night. The sight could be rotated manually to view objects well in front of the aircraft, allowing the bomb aimer to select among a wider variety of objects to use for drift measurements. [14]
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