How did WW II planes with tail wheels taxi?

[Stephen Tashi]

The tail wheels on many WW II planes look tiny. How did pilots steer these planes when taxing? Was it by using the tail wheel? If so, what control was used to turn the tail wheel ? - some sort of steering wheel separate from the other flight controls?

 

[.Scott]

No. The steering was (is) with rudders and brakes
Those planes are referred to as "tail draggers" and when they are on the ground - taxiing or not - their tail is down and their nose is high. So, from the cockpit, there is no forward visibility.

To get around this problem, they are not taxied in a straight line. Instead they are swerved left and right as they move down the taxiway so that the pilot can look left or right to see forward.

Here's a good video: Taildragger Ground Handling

BTW: I've piloted the Citabria and the Decathlon. Fun!

 

[256bits]

Some had tail skids, some had tail wheels, some were free castor, some skids or tail wheels were steerable along with the rudder, some used differential steering by breaking the left or right main wheels. Each individual aircraft would be different.

 

[Filip Larsen]

Each individual aircraft would be different.

I concur with that.

For example for the P-51 Mustang the position of the stick could be used to lock and unlock the tail wheel.

From http://www.rwebs.net/avhistory/opsman/pursuit/section7.htm:
Taxi with stick slightly aft of neutral. This will lock the tail wheel. In the locked position the tail wheel may be turned 6 degrees to the right or left by use of the rudder pedals. For sharp turns, push stick forward of the neutral position to allow the tail wheel full swiveling action. Use brakes as little as possible.

For a long time the P-51 sim from A2A has been my favorite FSX airplane, in part because they choose to model this exact mechanism allowing some nimble taxi maneuvers while still maintaining control. Since flying a real P-51 is a bit out of reach I can of course only assume that this portraits the taxi behavior of a real P-51 .

 

[Lnewqban]

The tail wheels on many WW II planes look tiny.

One of the reasons for that wheel to be small was to reduce aerodynamic drag while flying, since , in many models, it did not retract as main wheels did.

 

[nsaspook]

I flew down to my Key West duty station in the 70's on a dragger. We had a great view of the islands during the short trip.

https://www.sunshineskies.com/airsunshine.html