B-17 Tachometer drive - crazy question

[Dave Downs]

I've been watching vintage WWII aircraft instructional movies and am amazed at the instrument panel layouts as well as the complexity and placement of the various systems controls.

While watching a pilot setting the engine RPM's I got to thinking about the tachometers and how they were driven. This was in an age when most things were mechanically connected with cables, tubes etc.

Were the tachometers mechanically connected to the engine via a cable drive or was it an early electro-mechanical read-out at the actual instrument?

Routing a cable drive from the outboard engines to the instrument panel would be interesting to say the least.

[tankbarrell]

The tachometers were electric with a small generator on each engine.

[Cvairwerks]

Larger aircraft used either tach generators to drive the instruments or synchros to do the same. Smaller aircraft used mechanical drives.

[JohnB]

While we're on the topic...

How about throttle controls?
I would imagine they're cables.

Cables would certainly account for high wing seaplanes having their throttles above the panel.

[Cvairwerks]

Cables or push rods or a combination of both.