Thrust lever

When the thrust levers (English thrust levers ) of an aircraft, it is that the lever, by which the thrust and the power of the engine is controlled. By pressing the push lever, the pushing force is increased. The thrust levers are usually in the center console or in small aircraft or under the dashboard (Panel) of the cockpit. There they often have the form of a pull knob.

Usually there is a throttle per engine. In the three-engined MD -11 there are three, a Boeing 777, which has two engines, there are two, just to name a few examples.

With the thrust levers, or attached to the front auxiliary levers, the pilot can after putting on the runway, in support of the wheel, activate the reverse thrust ( reverse ). In addition, thrust levers often possess larger aircraft switch to turn off the automatic thrust control and activate the start / go-around mode of the autopilot without having to take your hands from the levers.

For larger commercial aircraft thrust control are operated but little more by hand. They usually come with an automatic thrust control system ( autothrottle / Autothrust ) equipped, which moves the thrust levers electrically. In the current models of Airbus ( A318 to A380), the system for automatic thrust control directly into the engine electronics intervenes here the thrust levers are locked into certain positions and remain almost the entire flight in such a catch.

• Aeronautical engineering