chris455 Wrote:Poncho , I am very sorry.
Looking at original references shadowgravy has provided would support the plain old ball style handle for all but perhaps the D27 late, if that.
Actually, there is an illustration on page 8 of the November, 1943 edition of the Pilot's Flight Operating Instructions for the razorback Thunderbolts (AN 01-65BC-1) that shows two styles of throttle quadrants.
The first throttle has the ball-tipped throttle lever and is labeled by an arrow pointing to the lower part of the quadrant: "Power switch built into quadrant on P-47D-11RE and subsequent airplanes."
The second throttle has a square handled throttle lever with a switch on top and is labeled with an arrow pointing to the switch: "Power switch P-47D-5RE through P-47D-10RE inclusive."
This diagram appears to be showing the water injection switches. A block of text directely above the illustration reads:
(2) WATER INJECTION CONTROL - A system of water injection is provided to safeguard the engine from detonation during operation at emergency military power. When required the system is activated by a toggle switch located on the throttle control knob.
Interestingly, the January, 1943 (ie, earlier) edition of this same manual makes no reference to the square handled throttle lever. All of the illustrations, even those specifically for the P-47B cockpit, show only the ball tipped throttle lever. It seems to me that the ball handled lever was used up until the P-47D-5RE variant. The water injection was, according to my sources, introduced with the P-47D-4RA model so this probably accounts for the change in throttle handle immediately after. The vintage flight instructions say the ball tipped handle then went back into use starting with the P-47D-11RE variant. This accounts for throttles up to late 1943...
Now we turn to the January, 1945 Pilot's Flight Operating Instructions that exclusively covers the bubble-topped 'D' models, specifically the P-47D-25 through P-47D-30 variants. There are only two illustrations in the manual that show a throttle quadrant, but both show an improved version of the square handled throttle lever. Page 4, Figure 6 -- Engine Control Quadrant even labels the important parts of the quadrant. On top of the thottle handle is what looks like a sliding thumb switch surrounded by the markings "Water," "On," and "Sol." This thumb switch is labeled as the Water Injection Switch on the illustration's key. A button at the base of the square handle, and facing toward the pilot, is labeled as the Push-to-talk Button.
hock: the more references we're sure to find.
