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The Ferranti Gyro Sight Mk IIc

A gyro gunsight is a type of gunsight in which target lead (the amount of aim-off in front of a moving target) and bullet drop are allowed-for automatically, the sight incorporating a gyroscopic mechanism that computes the necessary deflections required to ensure a hit on the target. The sight was developed during the Second World War for aircraft use during aerial combat.

The sight features both a fixed and a moving graticule, the fixed one signifying the direction the guns are pointing (in effect, the same as a 'normal', non-gyro, sight), the moving one the corrected aiming point. Providing the pilot/gunner uses the correct moving graticule then a hit on the target is highly likely.

The Ferranti Gyro Sight Mk I. The pilot/gunner had to look through the tube at the top of the sight, a drawback corrected in the later Mark II

After tests with two experimental sights which had begun in 1939, the first production gyro gunsight was the British Mark I Gyro Sight (left), developed at Farnborough in 1941, and prototypes of which were tested in a Supermarine Spitfire and the turret of a Boulton Paul Defiant in the early part of that year. With the successful conclusion of these tests the sight was put into production by Ferranti, the first limited-production versions being available by the spring of 1941, with the sights being first used operationally against Luftwaffe raids on Britain in July the same year. The sight had a number of drawbacks however, including requiring the pilot/gunner to look through a small aperture, so production was postponed and work started on an improved sight which would incorporate a normal reflector system instead. This new sight became the Mark II Gyro Sight, which was first tested in late 1943 with production examples becoming available later in the same year.

The Mark II was also subsequently produced in the US as the K-14 (USAAF) and Mk18 (Navy)

The radar-aimed AGLT Village Inn tail turret incorporated a Mark II Gyro Sight and this turret was fitted to some Lancaster bombers towards the end of World War II.

• A fuller explanation of the gyro gunsight

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