On either side of the P-40 and P-47 fuselage, aft of the rear cockpit bulkhead, there are windows. They are so placed that the pilot would have a very difficult, if not impossible, time looking out through them. What could they possibly be for? Please enlighten me. TIA Pete
They did in fact provide limited rearward vision. Better than nothing until the advent of bubble canopies.
Imagine driving your car with the back and rear passenger windows blocked off. Talk about a blind spot!
True, it's hard to "check six" in a razorback style aircraft, but if the pilot is swiveling his head like he wants to stay alive, those rear quarterlight windows let him see from five to seven! A little fish-tailing and he's covered.
Greg Reynolds, IPMS
I once heard a tongue-in-cheek requirement for a fighter pilot was to have a neck that allows head to swivel 360+ degrees.
Grins.. the famous silk scarf from WWI served a purpose. It was to prevent neck chafing as the pilot has to keep rotating his head frequently to check behind and sides.
--- Stephen
Umm, there isn't anything more than 360 degrees.
D> > Imagine driving your car with the back and rear passenger windows
UMM - he said "Tongue in Cheek" (Means 'Not to be taken literally)
Jack G
Not to mention, a spinning top rotates through a hell of a lot more than
360 degrees.Doug Wagner
Well, it you really want to divide rabbits, it only rotates 360 degrees, but it does it again and again and again many hundreds of times per minute.
In strict mathematical terms, it rotates through 2pi radians many, many times per minute.
;^)
Martin
Unless you're a pi/2 quadrant sort of guy, in which case just double the pace.
WmB
Then double it again. ;-)
WmB
What the shit does all of this have to do with the original question? Pete
It has to do with pilots looking behind themselves, swiveling their heads through more than 360 degrees and squinting through those tiny windows...
I don't know of any pilot, or any human being, for that matter (except, perhaps, Linda Blair) who can rotate their head more than 360 degrees ;~)
Which is how the rest of the thread started...
Was the Spit the only fighter to use a rear view mirror?
Craig
No.
WmB
Goodness, no.
They were pretty much standard on US/UK single seat fighters.
The US installations just tended to be a little cleaner than the Brits' installations - most US a/c had the mirror in a streamlined fairing - or, in the case of the F6F and F4U, inside the canopy itself - rather than the unstreamlined exterior "add-on" approach used by the Brits.
For instance, that little "bump" on the top of the P-38 canopy is the fairing for the rear-view mirror.
Cheers and all,
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