Aircraft gun sight system and method for high angle-off attacks

Abstract

An aircraft gun sighting system and method for use in executing high angle-off attacks wherein a headup display unit employs a cathode ray tube for projecting sighting indicia on the pilot's sighting panel. The sighting indicia appear as a plurality of straight lines lying along a circular sector on the lower portion of the sighting panel. The circular sector is defined by a center point on the panel representing the muzzle aiming point such that the sighting indicia define a fixed lead angle. Each sighting line represents the position of a hypothetical target travelling in a path which will, one bullet flight time later, intersect the path of a bullet fired by the attacking aircraft. The sighting lines are periodically reset to the outer limits of the circular sector whereupon they move along the sector toward convergence at the line defining the turning plane of the attacking aircraft. Resetting of individual lines is staggered in time so that the lines are spread out along the circular sector and the pilot always sees at least one line on or near the target. The length of the sighting lines is controlled in a manner enabling the pilot to estimate range conditions in order to determine whether sufficient lead angle exists. The pilot maneuvers the attacking aircraft so that any sighting line appears stationary on the target image and commences firing when that condition is observed.