P-51D bomb release

[Clown]

Hi,

I got a question about how P-51D releases the bombs. Is there a way to select either drop one at a time or both at the same time? From some cockpit pictures, it can be seen that there is a rocket/bomb selector switch in front of the control stick. It has 4 positions: center - safe/up - rocket/lower left - both bombs(?)/lower right - T..... (cannot really tell the word). How does this switch work?

BTW, how to arm the bombs?

Thanks in advance.

Clown

[wmaxt]

Originally Posted by Clown

Hi,

I got a question about how P-51D releases the bombs. Is there a way to select either drop one at a time or both at the same time? From some cockpit pictures, it can be seen that there is a rocket/bomb selector switch in front of the control stick. It has 4 positions: center - safe/up - rocket/lower left - both bombs(?)/lower right - T..... (cannot really tell the word). How does this switch work?

BTW, how to arm the bombs?

Thanks in advance.

Clown

I'll look for info on the bomb release subject.

Bombs are armed with a little propellar on the nose and sometimes with an additional fuse/prop in the tail. The props turn, screwing the arming pin into position. To keep the bomb from arming on the aircraft prior to release a wire is positioned through the propellar to keep it from turning and arming. The wire is attached to the aircraft so it releases the prop on the bomb as the bomb falls away allowing the bomb to arm.

wmaxt

[Twitch]

Yes you could select to drop one bomb or both. The switch positions are "both" and "train". On train its drops the port bomb when the button is pushed and the starboard one when pushed again. This directly from the P-51 manual I have.