The proposed concentric-ring sight was intended to free pilots from a single attack direction, but it still relied on visible ship smoke to estimate wind. Suggestions to use ensigns or flags did not solve the underlying problem, even though the familiar ring-sight principle appealed to the committee. The committee preferred swing-down metal rings to painting them on the windscreen, protecting the reflector sight without fixing the flawed wind cue. Langley restated the naval need for settings tied to dive angle and release height; those requirements were deferred, and the nominally approved work did not proceed.
Notable Point · 16:17-17:57
The multi-directional ring-sight dead end
A flexible ring sight still depended on reading smoke from the target, leaving the proposal tied to an assumption already rejected as impractical at sea.