Navy Mark VII gunsight

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Dana Bell

Senior Airman
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1,103
Sep 17, 2016
I know the Army N-3A and N-3B sights were supposed to be used in very early F4U-1s; the attached images show what appears to be one of those sights in a Corsair on 12 June 1943, but the ID plate seems to call this a Mark VII. I can't find much on the Mk.VII, but was this a Navy redesignation? (Googly doesn't seem to be my friend today...)

Cheers,



Dana
 
Is that photo of a production "standard" aircraft or perhaps a Test/Developmental aircraft? Do you know the BuNo of it?

I've done a deep dive on my photos and have not been able to find a gunsight like that installed. I have a photo of BuNo 02296 with the standard Mark 8 with attached reflector glass.

Another early Corsair 02685 https://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Corsair...wing-the-early-birdcage-canopy-clearly-01.jpg

Edit. - Perhaps a typo in your post, but photo labeled 06-12-1942.

02268 https://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Corsair...02268-Henderson-Field-Guadalcanal-1943-02.jpg
 
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IMHO this is not a N-3A gun sight - see attachment. BTW as per the attached document the Navy designation should be N-3A as well.
The attached pages are from "Index of Army Aeronautical Equipment with Navy and British Equivalents" Volume 5, revised 1. March 1944
 

Attachments

  • N3A sight.pdf
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Many thanks, Gentlemen!

Mjfur, you're right about the date being June 1942 - although my scan is labeled June 1943, the image is 1942. No serial is listed or visible on the instrument panel, but the first two aircraft wouldn't be ready to drag outdoors for photos until mid-July. BuNo 02154 (a/c #2) was used for gunfire tests; the third aircraft might have also been used for tests, but I'm really just guessing.

Catch 22, while I've seen records noting that N-2 sights were carried in some Corsairs, I've never seen a photo of that mount. Here we have something that looks like an N-2, but is labeled Mark VII - and I can't seem to find any record of Mark VII details. I hate to publish a photo with a guess about identity or significance, so the seearch will continue...

Again, thank you both!

Cheers,



Dana
 
Many thanks, MIflyer,

Interesting stuff - was there anything to help explain the Mark VII gun sight? I scrolled through fairly slowly and found a lot on the Mark VIII, but I missed anything on the VII.

I suspect I'll be using that manual again soon - it's full of intersting explanations!

Cheers,



Dana
 
Hi Dana, in your first post you mentioned that N-3A resp. N-3B sights were supposed to be used in early Corsairs. I added a copy of a manual showing that a N-3A sight differs in many details from the one on your picture (N-3B is different as well). Did you mean N-2A/N-2B instead?
Below 2 photos of an US Navy gunsight.
P.S. from 12.Dec. 2021: The visible marking Mark 7, Mod. 0 is for the adjustable head - see for more detailed information in the following posts.

 
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Catch-22, I believe it is just the adjustable sighting head that is labelled Mark 7. The sighting head would attach to the Mark 8 gunsight.

Mystery Mark 8 Navy gunsights

Good day all, I'm new to this site which i "unfortunately" only discovered very recently. I must say its really a treasure trove of useful information. I've been collecting gunsights for quite a few years and had to come to the conclusion that detailed info on gunsights (especially US and...
ww2aircraft.net
 
The form of the various parts reminds me of the early-war ST-1 series of gunsights manufactured for export. They were fitted to the P-400, P-40, some early P-51 (Allison), and Martlet. Maybe others. They were variants of the RAF Type 1, Mk II ,and US N-2, N-3 designs, redesigned to fit into the export aircraft instrument panel/cockpit envelope (most of the airframes were not designed with reflector gunsights in mind, so there were a several mods to the gunsight housings). There were a bunch of configurations re the specific housings, but the housings were designed to have standard mating features.
 
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Yep, my bad (Mea Culpa). Sorry for that - I'll revise my post for future readers. Thank you!
 
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