Nerd warning alert...some of you know I'm a bit of a family history nut and that I've been working on the history of a relative who served in the RFC and RAF in WW1. This post is a further part of that ongoing saga so feel free to move along and ignore my ramblings.
My relative's logbook and some photos are held by the RAF Museum Archives. I'd visited there a couple of years ago to copy them for use in my research. During that visit, I discovered that his collection also included an Aldis gunsight as fitted to the Bristol F2b Fighters that he flew. I vowed to return and see the gunsight but, alas, covid got in the way (plus a house move and a ton of other "life happening" things).
Today, I finally made it back to Hendon and was able to get my hands on the gunsight. Although its complete provenance isn't documented, we do know that my relative owned it and that his family gave it to the Museum, I suspect it came from an aircraft he crashed on 9 June 1919 while he was part of the RAF Rhine occupation force in Germany. Here's a photo of his crash (which resulted from engine failure) with the Aldis sight visible just in front of the cockpit (it's a black metal tube about a yard long):
Just for fun, I took a look into the sight and, surprisingly enough, it worked perfectly. I was even able to get a picture of the view, including the sighting markings on the graticule/reticle:
I know it's a pathetically sad thing to get so excited about...but it was cool to handle this piece of equipment that my relative had actually used, and that it still functioned as it was designed to do.