Snap-Shoot Gunsight for Fixed-Gun Fighter Aircraft
Abstract
The design philosophy, mechanization and employment of three types of air-to-air gunsights are discussed from the standpoint of their effectiveness in providing a fighter pilot with accurate and usable steering information during an aerial engagement. Two of the gunsights, the so-called 'iron sight' and the Lead-Computing Optical Sight (LCOS), are common to most modern fighter aircraft. The third system is a radically new concept in fire control computation called the 'snapshoot' gunsight. The snap-shoot concept is an attempt to arrive at a more realistic division of responsibility between man and machine than either the lead-computing optical sight or the iron sight. With the lead-computing optical sight, the pilot is relieved of all computational and most of the measurement responsibilities, requiring only that he 'track' a target with a dynamic visual cue (a pipper). The authors contend that the pilot is in a much better position than is the computer to determine future target motion. All existing computing gunsights, however, relieve the pilot of this responsibility. The snap-shoot gunsight concept relies heavily upon the pilot's natural predictive ability, while the computer is given the task of determining accurate projectile trajectories and displaying them to the pilot.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1969
- Accession Number
- AD0711391
Entities
People
- Albert E. Preyss
- Richard E. Willes
- Stephen W. Gilbert
Organizations
- United States Air Force Academy