JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

There are a number of posts on this blog that focus on what turns out to be an unexpectedly unusual perspective–looking at things straight-on. Straight-on as in straight across, and straight up, and straight down, and in images that are not architectural plans or elevations. Today’s entry is similar to an earlier post looking through a Vickers gun sight–this one is looking out from behind the tail gunner’s seat in an Armstrong Whitworth A.W. 38 Whitley.

Here are a few examples of previous efforts on this subject on this blog:

• The Straight Series: Looking Straight Through a Vickers Gun Sight, 1916 https://historyofideasblog.com/thesciencebookstore/2015/08/jf-1.html
• Vision: Looking Straight Up, Down, Across and Through–1525-1905  https://historyofideasblog.com/thesciencebookstore/2009/07/vision-looking-straight-up-down-across-and-through15251905.html
• Points of View: Inside Looking Out, Outside Looking in, and in-Between  https://historyofideasblog.com/thesciencebookstore/2009/02/points-of-view-inside-looking-out-outside-looking-in-and-inbetween.html
• Crystallizing a Scarce Perspective: Looking Straight Down & the Art of Photography  https://historyofideasblog.com/thesciencebookstore/2014/03/looking-straight-down-the-art-of-photography.html

 So, just for perspective’s sake, the two bits labeled “E” are the buttons/triggers located in grips for the four guns which are just barely seen (over-and-under) just to the left and right of the ammunition feeds, and the gunner’s seat would be just a little bit below and back from where the foreground begins. In any event, if you were crowded aft and looked straight out of the back of this workhorse of a medium bomber, this is what you’d see.