Fall 2026 Militaria and Aviation Auction
Lot 146:
Description
U.S. Navy Bureau of Ordnance Aircraft Machine Gun Bore Sighting Kit, Mark I, by Bell & Howell Co., Chicago, dated 1942, with later NAS Alameda inventory markings dated June 1948 This lot presents a substantially complete Mark I bore sighting kit, the precision optical instrument used by U.S. Navy ordnancemen to align wing- and cowl-mounted aircraft machine guns and cannon with cockpit reflector sights. No individual serviceman’s biography attaches to a kit of this type; its interest rests in the maker’s data plate, the printed contents chart, and the painted station markings that trace its service life from wartime manufacture through postwar fleet use. Bore sighting was an unglamorous but essential discipline of naval aviation ordnance work – every fighter and attack aircraft leaving a carrier or naval air station depended on guns correctly converged on a common aim point, and kits such as this one were the tool by which armorers verified that convergence before a plane was cleared for combat. Bell & Howell, better known for its cinema and optical equipment, was one of several precision manufacturers pressed into Bureau of Ordnance contract work during the war, producing kits calibrated for the .30 caliber and .50 caliber Browning machine guns and 20mm cannon then standard across Navy carrier air groups. The stenciled ‘NAS ALAMEDA’ marking and the accompanying ‘6 1948’ inventory date show this particular kit remained in active Navy stores at Naval Air Station Alameda, California, six years after manufacture, evidence of continued fleet service into the early Cold War and Korean War era. The brass exterior data plate reads ‘U.S. NAVY-BU. OF ORD., AIRCRAFT MACHINE GUN BORE SIGHTING KIT MARK I, ‘ with inspector and contract number fields, ‘MADE BY BELL & HOWELL CO., CHICAGO, ILL., ‘ and the year ‘1942.’ The gray-painted wooden transit case retains its original leather carrying handle and brass latches, with the yellow-painted ‘NAS ALAMEDA’ winged insignia and ‘6 1948’ date stenciled below the plate. Inside, the paper lid chart, headed ‘U.S. NAVY – BU. OF ORD., AIRCRAFT MACHINE GUN BORE SIGHTING KIT, MARK I, ‘ lists each numbered component by stock and part number and again credits ‘BELL & HOWELL CO. CHICAGO, 1942.’ The felt-lined lid and fitted wooden block interior hold the breech sight and its .30 cal, .50 cal, and 20 mm breech attachments, the muzzle sight with .50 cal and 20 mm muzzle fittings, the angle extension, eyepiece, two extension pieces, and the fitted wrench, each nested in its labeled compartment corresponding to the lid chart. The case exterior shows service-related scuffing, remnants of old adhesive tape, and light paint loss consistent with decades of handling and storage; the exterior data plate has surface oxidation with some legend still legible beneath grime. The optical components show minor finish wear and light superficial oxidation to unpainted metal surfaces but remain crisp and fitted tightly to their blocks, with the .30 cal breech component further hand-stamped ‘02491.’ By comparison against the lid chart, the kit appears essentially complete. A well-documented and visually striking U.S. Navy ordnance instrument, its Bell & Howell wartime manufacture and Alameda service markings together tracing a working life that carried it from the assembly line of 1942 into the postwar Pacific Fleet.
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