The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20040830001601/http://www.liberatorcrew.com:80/15_Gunnery/08_sights.htm
The iron ring site was used in conjunction with either
a front post or a wind vane site.
The
wind vane front sight was an early attempt to compensate for the effects of
air and wind speed. It was developed in the era of relatively slow moving biplanes.
It proved ineffective on a fast moving bomber with a fighter flying a pursuit
curve, a situation which generally requires the gunner to shoot behind, not
ahead of the attacker.
Training and aircraft sights for the .30 caliber Browning.
Wind vane sight on twin FN38s.
The business end of the
waist position .50.
The
reflector ring sight developed in WW2 was the first "heads up" display.
An illuminated sight pattern was projected onto a glass lens. The gunner looked
through this lens at his target. The sight ring images above were take looking
through a Mark 9 sight. The small dot in the center is called the 'pipper'.
The
Mark 9 was a commonly used reflector sight. It could be found on turrets, flexible
single and twin mounts, as well as the ground guns such as the .50 caliber quad.
The K-2 compensating sight was used on the
Sperry ball turret.
The Mark 18 was a compensating computing sight. At the time, it represented
the cutting edge in targeting sights.
