GB472392A - Improvements in or connected with bomb sights for flying machines - Google Patents

Abstract

472,392. Bomb-dropping sights. LEIGH, W. Feb. 17, 1936, Nos. 4705/36 and 4576/37. [Class 92 (ii)] Relates to bomb - dropping sights of the kind in which automatic adjustments of the sight line are made to suit the changes in altitude and speed of the aircraft which may occur after the sight has been set. According to the invention, such automatic corrections are applied to the conventional type of sight comprising a horizontal frame 88, Figs. 1, 2, supporting a sliding fore sight x and a vertical frame 32 supporting a sliding back sight 33, the frame being supported for rotation with respect to a pillar 5. Further, to correct for the speed and direction of the wind, the frame as a whole is automatically tilted on horizontal trunnions 95, as the sighting device is rotated about a vertical axis, by the engagement of rollers 99 on the frame with a wind ring 100 which is set obliquely to suit wind speed. In the form shown, the back sight is adjusted vertically by an amount which varies inversely as the aircraft speed, and the fore sight is adjusted horizontally inversely as the square root of the height. The back sight adjustment is effected by an air speed motor 9, Fig. 1, driving a governor 18, the sleeve 22 of which rotates a cam 25 connected by a spring-controlled cable 30 with the sight 33. The fore sight x is similarly adjusted from an altimeter 8, Fig. 2, which drives a cam over which passes a cable leading to a second cam forming part of a differential gear in a box 78, the periphery of which leads by a cable 79 to the fore sight. The differential gear enables adjustments for bomb characteristics to be effected by a knob 81. The means for adjusting the wind ring 100 is shown in Fig. 4 as carried by a wind tube 103 which is connected by a disengageable clutch 106 with a compass tube 111, both tubes being rotatable separately or together within the pillar 5. The tube 111 is rotated by a telecompass y. By releasing the clutch 106 by lever 110 and rotating the knob 104, an index 105 is moved to suit the direction of the wind over a compass card on the upper part of the knob 124. This knob is then rotated to bring a wind speed scale opposite the index 105, such rotation inclining the wind ring 100 through links 130, 131. When the clutch 106 is re-engaged, the sight is under the control of the telecompass.