“Hi Nick, A question for you regarding this item on eBay, listed as B24 or early B36. I note that on all the pictures I’ve seen of both B24 and B36 yokes the end of the yoke arms are flat and level facing the pilot, this appears to be a common feature for these types of aircraft, perhaps I’m wrong? I note that the particular yoke on eBay has no flat ends. Interestingly enough APHS has a similar type yoke listed as DC-4E. Any thoughts?“
Darrell:
The DC-4E was a one-off prototype that flew in 1939 or 40. It has almost nothing in common with the wartime C-54 that evolved from it. I don’t think the wheel on the APHS site is labelled correctly. If it actually came out of the lone prototype of that aircraft it would be a DC-4E wheel, not a C-54E that it’s labelled as. That said, it certainly looks similar to the wheel used in later B-24s….but without the characteristic clear plastic windows used on those wheels and on B36 wheels. I’ve not seen a wheel like that one on the APHS site. While there is always room for doubt, I think the wheel currently on Ebay is an early B36 item. It looks to have a heavy coating of gloss paint. And the center mounting has been boogered up–the quintessential forcing of a square peg into a round hole.
I don’t know if I’m interpreting your question in the way you mean. Both the B24 and early B36 wheels are “dished”. When laying flat on their backs, only the center hub contacts the table. There is about an inch of distance from the backside of looped handle part of the wheel to the table.
Also, both the B24 and B36 wheels have flat “windows” at the pilot-facing ends of the stalks. Far as I know, all B24 and B36 wheels (of this style) had the clear plastic windows at the ends of the stalks. On original wheels these were a clear plastic material bonded to the hard rubber coating over the label “Microphone Push On”. Captain’s wheels had the left side labelled. Some B24s also had “Bomb Release” labeling under the opposite window. The windows on B24 wheels come in two variations, flush and non-flush. Any wheel that has the flats but no window covering is missing them…usually due to age, hardening, cracking to the point of powderization and flaking off. That’s how my B36 wheel looked before I replaced the windows with clear shaped epoxy. This is a guess, but I think the windows on the Ebay wheel have been painted over.
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