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A rear view mirror, also known as a door or side view mirror, eliminates blind spots and is mandatory on all vehicles. It was first used on fighter aircraft in WWII and is also used on motorcycles and racing vehicles.
A rear view mirror, also commonly called a door mirror or side view mirror, is an exterior mirror that is mounted near the front edge of the front doors of an automobile. Prior to the early 1970s, car front doors generally had small windows that could be opened separately from the main window glass. These small windows were called wing windows, causing the exterior mirror mounted near them to be called a wing mirror. The primary purpose of the mirror is to eliminate the blind spot adjacent to the driver’s rear quarter of the vehicle. In an effort to further aid vision, many vehicle owners install a small convex mirror on the edge of the rear view mirror.
In most areas, the inclusion of the driver’s side view mirror is mandatory on all vehicles; However, the additional vision provided by this outside mirror has led to the mounting of a mirror on both sides of most vehicles. On many vehicles, the rearview mirror has power control. The controls for the mirror are usually located on the driver’s door armrest. For vehicles with a passenger side power mirror, the controls are often located low in the center of the instrument panel. However, many vehicles with a power driver’s side outside mirror continue to feature a manually operated passenger’s side outside mirror.
The effectiveness of the in-car rearview mirror led to the inclusion of an outside-mounted rearview mirror on many fighter aircraft in World War II. By mounting a mirror on the outside of the fuselage, fighter pilots could see pursuing enemy planes and try to dodge their machine gun fire. Without the aid of a side mirror, a pilot could only maneuver by closely watching the enemy’s tracer rounds as they missed his mark. If the enemy didn’t miss, the pilot had no real method to avoid further damage other than instinct.
Motorcycles use a very close version of the rearview mirror mounted on the outside of the handlebars. Due to the central position of the motorcyclist, only a mirror mounted high and to the outside of the motorcyclist’s shoulder line can permit rear vision with a clear image of rear traffic. Racing vehicles also use a derivative of the mirror by mounting a convex mirror inside the roof and door line on a roll bar. This allows the driver to monitor the following traffic without creating the resistance produced by an externally mounted mirror.
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