Looking for photos of aircraft yoke/wheels used in hot rods. If you use one or have used one in the past for a car project, let me know what you like(d) about it and if you have or had any dislikes. Thank you....
We hadda DC-3 wheel in our hamb dragster...after a couple of runs, we took it out and put in a regular steering wheel. You can't turn corners worth a shit because half of the wheel is missing. It's pretty dangerous in an emergency stuation.
Thanks for the response. Discussed this with another guy who had first hand knowledge after I posted the thread and he basically had the same comments which were....."hard to figure out where and how to grab the wheel at times"
My Chrysler Imperial had a Square wheel and I found my self cussing at it every time I was making a tight turn! Aircraft wheels belong on aircraft for a reason... mainly designed for maximum visibility of the instrument cluster and where capable of "lock to lock" steering at 180 degrees.
That's simple if you aren't using both lanes you aren't getting your money's worth. I have driven butter fly wheels in go fats go straight cars never a yoke from an airplane but not having a top to the wheel is never a perfect situation especially on one that you may drive in traffic.
Thanks for the link hillbilly4008. I remember seeing that car in a magazine, but not sure if I have the issue anymore. Well, what prompted this discussion was a wheel that I had found. A NOS Lockheed Yoke. I was considering it for my build, since I have a couple other aviation items I'm using. But, the price of the NOS Yoke was crazy, so I was not going to pull the trigger on it until I asked around about the use of them. Looks somewhat like the Douglas one shown in the link, but possibly had more vertical sides. Thicker grip as well if I recall. All black with a center emblem in red. Pretty much decided to use the steering wheel I have for it, because of the price and disfunctional use of the Lockheed wheel at times. But, time will tell (It sure did look bad ass). Possibly a guy could add a stainless bar around the top of the thing, something else to grab to when needed. Who knows, will have to give it some thought.
I'm putting a yoke in my Deora re-creation, in fact, exactly as the original. It will be custom built, but I'm using the yoke from a Beechcraft Bonanza as a guide in building it.
Some time ago, I stumbled across this little gem, which may or may not be a tiller wheel. I did a "what is it" here, but it remains a mystery. I even went as far as to correspond with the the head of the Airline Pilot's Historical Society. They have a collection of about 300 wheels, but none matching mine. The closest they have is from a late WWII bomber trainer called the Bamboo Bomber. They offered to buy it, so I'm leaning to airplane. It'd take a bit if fabrication to get it to fit my column, since I don't want to alter the actual wheel. I'm not sure if I could live with it, but on the positive side, it is over a half wheel (five eighths?). Truthfully, I'm on the fence between selling it & giving it a go. Either way, it is a beautiful & mysterious object.
Looks to me like a stand up forklift wheel>> the hole on the bottom looks to have a bushing/sleeve for the spinner knob ! No spinner knob on aircraft ( that I know of !! LOL ) Dave
It is a unique looking wheel, whatever it came from. I like that fact that it is metal, and not plastic or metal covered in plastic, I should say.
It' s from a UC-78. Cessna built them for the USAAF as an advanced bomber trainer. A guy I worked for years ago loved them.
Whew, when I saw UC-78, I thought it was a new model fork lift. Seriously, thank for the info...I'll have to do some research on that to see if the mystery is finally solved.
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