Aircraft armament alignment

Claim 1

Apparatus for aligning the boresight axis of a weapon carried by an aircraft with respect to a reference axis on said aircraft including a collimator comprising a housing, an objective lens, a translucent screen, a reticle on said screen, and optical elements between said lens and said screen mounted in said housing, the angular relationship between the optical axis of said objective lens and a collimated light beam received by said lens being indicated by the position of a light spot in said reticle, means for generating a collimated light beam, a jig temporarily and adjustably attachable to said aircraft, said jig having first and second supporting means for alternatively supporting said collimator at first and second spaced-apart locations thereon, first retaining means for retaining said collimated light-generating means on said aircraft so that said collimated light beam is parallel to said reference axis and directed toward the first location on said jig, second retaining means for retaining said collimated light generating means on said weapon so that said collimated light beam is parallel to said boresight axis, and directed toward the second location on said jig, whereby, with the light generating means in the first retaining means, the collimator at the first location on said jig, and the jig adjusted so that the light spot on the reticle indicates that the optical axis of said lens is aligned with respect to said reference axis, said jig will be in known relationship with respect to said reference axis and with the light-generating means subsequently moved to the second retaining means and the collimator moved to the second location on said jig and the weapon adjusted so that the light spot on the reticle indicates that the boresight axis is aligned in a known relationship with respect to said optical axis of said lens, the weapon boresight axis is aligned at a known relationship with respect to said aircraft reference axis.