What advantage did a fw190 pilot with Kommandogerät engine management system for its BMW801 have over a Mustang pilot

[gruad]

The Kommandogerät (literally "command device") on the BMW 801 radial engine was essentially a pioneering, hydraulic-mechanical precursor to modern Electronic Engine Control (EEC) or FADEC systems.

It unified multiple isolated engine parameters into one single throttle lever. When the Fw 190 pilot moved the throttle, the Kommandogerät automatically calculated and adjusted:

1.Boost pressure (manifold pressure)
2.Propeller pitch (RPM regulation)
3.Fuel mixture (leaning or richening based on altitude)
4.Ignition timing
5.Supercharger gear changes (switching between low and high blower stages at the optimum altitude)

How did the Mustang pilot handle this under the stress of a dog fight?

Did the allies try something similar with their analogue computers? I know they had same for gun control.

Did this enable pilots with less training ?

 

[Engineman]

Hi,
By the time that Fw 190 A were dogfighting "Mustangs" all Western single engine Fighters had effectively the functionality of the KG. In reality, the BMW KG complexly combined the engine control adjustments in a unit, whereas, most other engines/aircraft had the engine control functions in their sub systems.
The Bf 109 F/G/K was possibly most like the Fw 190 A, in that the DB 601/605 was normally operated in Automatik with single lever (Throttle) control. Daimler-Benz had considered having a KG type system but decided it was more complicated and offered no advantage. In this they were probably correct and BMW would have done better to invest the effort in better design of the BMW 801.
Here are the realities of the KG on the BMW 801:

Boost pressure. This is controlled automatically by a Boost control or limiter on all Axis and Allied SE Fighter engines.

Propeller pitch. Normally automatic regulation with just an rpm lever on Allied aircraft. BMW had to have a manual electrical pitch control function to allow use of different pitch settings, when required, like other aircraft anyway.

Fuel mixture, was generally automatic when selected on all SE Fighter engines after about 1942. The DB FI engines were always fully automatic mixture control. The BMW 801 D engine tested by NACA in 1944 was found to have limited ability to correctly control its mixture above about 20,000 feet altitude.

Ignition timing, was automatic and generally fully variable on all large engines.

Supercharger gear changes. The BMW 801 did suffer with a large overlap of the supercharger gear change altitudes to prevent "hunting". Unfortunately, that meant that Low gear would sometimes be held when High gear would be more powerful, and vice-versa. This was bad enough to be adversely commented upon. Other multi speed superchargers were better in this respect or, could be held in a specific gear for optimum pilot requirements. Furthermore, the usual BMW 801 engines were generally unspectacular in supercharger performance at altitude, with poorer performance above about 20,000 feet.


Overall, generally, the KG system did not really offer much simplification compared to say a P-51 D, and possibly less advantages in propeller and Supercharger control. The question of needing less pilot training is tricky. The Luftwaffe generally had less training throughout the War and this produced far less able average pilots.

Eng