Warbird Information Exchange

Here's two pics of Mustang throttles. The first is taken from Taigh Ramey's post about the P-51K time forgot, the second I believe is from Kermit Weeks Mustang.
Were both types of throttles used in Mustangs? When and why were they switched?
My guess is the K-14 gunsight had a twist grip. Is this the only reason or is the twist grip a post war add-on?

Regards,
Mike

I believe Kermits throttle is the type that you can twist the handle to adjust the gun sight. Kind of like a motorcycle throttle.

It looks like the throttle is a later mod., but ours has one that style as well. Just my own two cents though.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

Maybe the grip is to facilitate the radio button? I'm no expert...

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You are correct on the twist grip as it was used to control the range function of the K-14 computing gun sight. When the grip was moved it would turn a set of cables connected to the gun sight that would adjust the size of a ring of dots in the optical glass. This ring of dots was supposed to be set to the wingspan of the aircraft being shot at. There was another lever on the K-14 that the pilot would set for the type of aircraft being attacked. This lever was usually graduated in feet but they also had a version which had the type of German fighter marked right on it.

For example if you were going after a FW-190 with a wing span of 35 feet you would adjust the lever to 35. Then you would twist the grip until the ring of dots circled the wingspan of the aircraft in the gun sight glass. Through geometry if a 35 foot object look to be 1.2 inches in the glass then the computer could solve for range and would adjust the moving sight accordingly so the bullets would hit the target. The K-14 also had gyros to stabilize the optics.

Imagine the fighter pilots version of patting your head and stomach while walking. He had to fly the aircraft while checking around for other folks that want to shoot him down. He would jockey for a good shot. Set the wingspan lever and adjust the grip to keep the ring of dots on the fighter. Sure hope the armament panel was set up for guns. he had to maneuver the aircraft to get the computing half of the K-14 sight on the target while pulling G's. He would then have a short time to take a shot while in the fight for his life then repeat all of the above and more, all of this happening in seconds and fractions of seconds.

The K-14 and its variants were used extensively in WWII. In my collection I even have one version that was used in the ball turret. This computing sight was used heavily in turrets especially by the Navy and was known as the Mark 18.

The throttle on the P-51K at Crawford and many other versions of the D and earlier Mustangs, was the basic throttle used with the N-9 gun sight. The N-9 was a simple optical sight that simply pointed forward. This sight was not far removed from the iron ring and bead sight. With this sight the pilot would make all of his own computations and adjustments for lead, lag, elevation, acceleration, ballistics etc. I imagine that it was a learned art. I think the K-14 and all of the other computing sights of WWII were trying to solve the problem via science so the pilot didn't have to lean so heavily on the art for his survival.

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Taigh Ramey
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Taigh, my dad flew P-51's, & don't remember him ever explaining about the twist grip to me. That is a very good discription of operation.
Robbie

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Does anyone have a photo of the grip on a P-51a? My Mustang III Pilot Notes shows the early type. I know all the D models that I have been in have the later type grip as opposed to the ball handle and most, if not all Spitfires have the long handle that rotates to change the ranging of the gunsight.

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Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK

When the RAF introduced their gyro gunsight, 'kill' rates rose very quickly. It was particularly effective when used by inexperienced pilots. It seems it was one of those situations where the operation of the equipment in action was actually more straight forward than describing it in words and became second nature fairly quickly.

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The early model mustangs like the A's and A-36's had the round ball type throttle, the D and later had the round cylinder type as shown. I have seen some Cavalier Mustangs and a former Bob Hoover Mustang that had a T-28 type throttle which is shaped like a hand grip. It is sweet to fly formation with as you just flinch your wrist to make minute power adjustments. Not sure if it was an official Cavalier mod or not.

Now if only my car worked like that!

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North American Aviation, Inc., Weekly Service News Supplement, Volume 3, Number 17, December 9, 1944.

"MCR C-429-3

GUN SIGHT - INSTALLATION OF K-14 COMPUTING

Installation of the K-14 gun sight became effective in production on and after Airplanes P-51D-20-NT AAF44-12853 and P-51D-20-NA AAF44-72227."


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