Warbird Information Exchange

Anybody have a picture of the throttle quadrant for a Duck? Doesn't matter if it's out of a flight manual or a photograph. I'm trying to figure out if a friend has aquired a bunch of them.

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Brad

From the Long Island Aviation thread:

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James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

This one is close to what I need...anybody have a full on view from the side??

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Brad

If that's from Kermit Weeks' Duck (going by the white interior...) it may not be the original Duck type, there being a few variations from the original in the rebuilt - I don't know about the throttle specifically; it may well be correct, but when I was talking to Kermit about it, he said if he was restoring it today, it would be done 'differently'.

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James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

Yes, it is out of Kermit's and the Ketchum's Duck in Alaska has the same also.

Hi Jack,
Thanks for that - it looks like it matches the bit you can see in the Grumman photo too, so I reckon they are correct.

Does anyone know if the Duck's throttle would be specific to the aircraft, or might it have been an 'off the shelf' type?

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James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

The throttle in the top image is nothing like the other one pictured. That's not to say that they aren't both appropriate to that specific version of the Duck of course.

The throttle in the top photo has only got three levers: RPM, Throttle and mixture.

The other throttle has four levers: RPM, Supercharger, throttle and mixture. The throttle lever knob is also very different (being the big type, which usually has a mic button on it too, vs. the diminutive round knob of the other quadrant.) This quadrant also has a friction knob too, unlike the other one. Also, did the Duck actually have a supercharger???

Both units were probably made to the same basic design, and maybe even by the same company, but are really quite different from one another. Incidentally, the one in the color photo looks almost identical to those used on late war corsairs, but I suppose it could be appropriate to a Duck too.

Would love to see a photo of the ones your friend has Brad.

Cheers,
Richard

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Richard Mallory Allnutt - Photography - http://www.rmallnutt.com

The first picture is an early airplane. Prop control is in the panel, manual primer and the fuel selector is on the right. Gear position indicator is also showing one down and one up.

It looks like a Shakespear quadrant (Shakespear used to make fishing reels before the war). There's several different models, but the cool thing about them is you can mix and match the pieces and basically make a quadrant to order. I used a bunch of junk that I'd picked up here and there to build up a pair of original type ones for my Stearman.