Gunsight in which target lead and bullet drop are calculated automatically
The instrument panel of a Spitfire IX showing the Mk IID Gyro reflector gunsight. To set range the dial adjusts the reticle size to match target wingspan. Currently set to the Junkers Ju 88, it ranged in size from the large Fw 200 Condor to the small Messerschmitt Bf 109.
A 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. 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.
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 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. Post-war models added a small radar to automate the range measurement; these are known as radar gunsights.
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. 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.
A gyrogunsight (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)...
A radar gunsight is a type of gunsight for aerial combat that combines a gyrogunsight with a small radar. They were introduced just after World War II...
instruments like autopilots, bombsights, analog ballistics computers and gyrogunsights. In the post-WWII era the company branched out into electronics, both...
gyroscope. 1939 saw the development by the British of the first of these gyrogunsights, reflector sights adjusted by gyroscope for the aircraft's speed and...
radar (PS-03) from LME hadn't been developed in time. The gunsight was an advanced gyrogunsight developed by Saab for both the Saab 32B and Saab 35A called...
Ferranti opened a factory at Crewe Toll in Edinburgh to manufacture gyrogunsights for the Spitfire aircraft. After the war they set up Ferranti Research...
rockets Bombs: 2x 500 lb (227 kg) bombs Avionics VHF radio Nav aids Gyrogunsight Ranging radar Four privately owned Gnat T.1s together with an Ajeet...
reflector sight was fitted, which was slated to be replaced by the EZ 42 Gyrogunsight, although this never happened. Power in production K-4s was supplied...
Americans and other Allies include ASDIC (sonar), the Bailey bridge, gyrogunsight, jet engine, Liberty ship, RDX, Rhino tank, Torpex, traveling-wave tube...
featured a nose-mounted ranging radar, providing range input to the gyrogunsight for air-to-air gunnery only. Other equipment included pylon-mounted...
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science 1966 Inertial guidance and gyrogunsight; founder of the Instrumentation Laboratory Harold Eugene "Doc" Edgerton...
electrically powered, such as the weapons controls, onboard cameras, and the gyrogunsight. Although the Sea Fury had been originally developed as a pure air superiority...
reflector gunsight, which projected the sighting graticule directly onto the windscreen, or the Mk.IIL until just after the Second World War, when the gyro gunsight...
the pilot good visibility. He was provided with a Mk 6 lead-computing gyrogunsight. Underneath the cockpit were four 20 mm (0.79 in) M3 autocannon. Their...
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