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Can you pick a panel for a plane?

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Back in the day, former Of Wings & Things columnist Pete Bowers sent me a packet of instrument panel photos depicting Air Force airplanes of World War II and slightly later.

Probably old castoff images from Wright Field’s test community, it makes sense that test pilots would want to be able to review pictures of a variety of aircraft they might be expected to fly on short notice.

It’s all steam gauges and radium-tipped toggle switches in these views from that packet.

See which ones you can identify:

With the stick pulled aft and to the right, a clear view of the instrument panel of a Curtiss P-40N Warhawk, last production model of the P-40 series, shows the level of cockpit clutter the pilot had to be familiar with. (Air Force via Peter M. Bowers collection)
Here’s a preserved Curtiss P-40N Warhawk, now a popular warbird nicknamed Parrot Head, in the Warhawk Air Museum collection at Nampa, Idaho. (Photo by Frederick A. Johnsen)
The lettering calls this an RB-18B. In the nomenclature used between 1943 and 1947, the letter R in front of the B-18 said this was a restricted duty aircraft, no longer useful as a bomber. The letter B following B-18 indicated this was a modified radar-equipped sub hunter version of the prewar Douglas B-18A. And the large stenciled digits 7-6-0-0 align with the serial number 37-600 originally assigned to a B-18A. (Photo from the Peter M. Bowers collection)
The pre-war Douglas B-18A was quickly overshadowed by newer bomber designs. The aircraft whose cockpit is depicted in this article started life looking like this shiny sharknosed example before it became a B-18B with a bulbous radome replacing the upper nose glazing. (Air Force photo via the Gerald Balzer collection)
The XP-47J version of the Republic Thunderbolt fighter was a one-off example that featured a redesigned cowling, fewer machine guns, and other changes to give it a top speed Republic claimed at over 500 mph. The Army Air Forces could only coax 493 mph out of the P-47J in 1945, but that was still no mean feat. (Photo from the Peter M. Bowers collection)
The Republic XP-47J featured extensive redesign and weight loss in an effort to push the 500 mph boundary; the Army Air Forces got this fighter up to 493 mph in a test. (Photo from the Peter M. Bowers collection)
They called the Lockheed XP-58 Chain Lightning, a bigger, beefier twin boom fighter than Lockheed’s celebrated P-38 Lightning. The Chain Lightning’s development suffered from a series of exotic engine disappointments. Ultimately designed for a pilot and a gunner, the XP-58 originally was intended to fly with two Continental engines putting out about 1500-1600 horsepower. This was switched to a pair of experimental Pratt and Whitney liquid cooled engines of 1800 horsepower. When work stopped on the development of this engine, the Air Corps opted to use another experimental powerplant, the Wright XR-2160 Tornado, a 42-cylinder engine capable of 2350 horsepower. The Tornado, too, fizzled before it could be bolted to the XP-58, and Lockheed suggested the experimental Allison V-3420 engine, a 24-cylinder liquid-cooled motor, be installed. In that configuration, the XP-58 made its first flight on June 6, 1944. As the engine turmoil ebbed and flowed, the Army Air Forces decided to add crew cockpit pressurization to the XP-58’s requirements. The XP-58 was variously embraced as a high-altitude escort fighter, then a low-altitude attack weapon, and still later in November 1942 as a bomber destroyer. The one Chain Lightning completed was quickly evaluated at Muroc, transferred to Wright Field, and found wanting. Ultimately the XP-58 was assigned to be a non-flying instructional airframe. What is probably most surprising about the XP-58 ordeal is the Army Air Forces’ vacillation over an airframe that hindsight says should have been dropped from consideration earlier. (Photo from the Army Air Forces via Peter M. Bowers)
Lockheed’s stocky XP-58 Chain Lightning was an airplane in search of missions — and motors. (Photo from the Gerald Balzer collection)
This broad expanse of instrument real estate is the panel for a B-24D Liberator delivered in 1942. The serial number is not entirely legible on the Air Corps acceptance plate, but may be 41-23679. B-24 instrument panels underwent several changes to accommodate different requirements during the years of World War II. (Army Air Forces photo via the Peter M. Bowers collection)
The Consolidated Aircraft B-24D Liberator was the first production model of the Liberator series to see widespread Army Air Forces combat use. (Douglas photo via the author’s collection)

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Comments

  1. 169380b. Looks like the one for this plane. Alle of these aircraft is above my pay grade.
    The reason I picked this one is it would be easier for me to pick up.