Gunsights

[KellyB]

I've always wondered why there appear to be two gunsights in the P47 and the P-40's.

One seems to be the reflector sight, and the other, off to one side, appears t be fixed?

Anyone please enlighten me.

[Mathias]

Many warbirds had a "mechanical" gunsight as a backup.
Every German bird for instance had both the reflector sight plus the "sting" for the case there was trouble with reflector sight.

[hairyspin]

By contrast, the British gyro gunsight had a built-in backup: it could project a fixed reticule on to the reflector glass instead of the gyro-linked moveable reticule.

[KellyB]

So the fixed sight off to the side was just a backup and not some other way of sighting like for bombing.

Thanks for the enlightenment, guys. I should have asked earlier on. Tried scouring the web and didn't find anything there.

Another mystery solved!