There are some amazing bits in that book, like the Brit engine designer, Andrew Alexander Ross, who was born in 1884 and died in 1994. There must be a lesson for all of us 
Following on from Peter’s post I ended up buying the book on Amazon. Just delivered. FWIW, I randomly opened the book to have a look inside, and landed straight on the page that Peter kicked this thread off with (the Kommandogeraet).
There is German precision engineering of the Kommandogeraet.
On the other hand, there is British engineering for engine control systems. Maybe not so precision. I used to be in a Jet Provost syndicate. The ECU (jet startups are somewhat complicated) was based on a clockwork mechanism, sort of like a child’s musicbox. If you had a hot start, or something else didn’t feel right on start, you shut down immediately. Our SOP was to bang the ECU a couple of times with a ball peen hammer and try again. The likely cause was one of the fingers of the clockwork mechanism getting a bit sticky. A whack or two usually sorted the problem out.
It is dense but every page is really interesting. Very well written – by a real expert on the topic.
In so many ways, amazing how little has changed in the challenges we see in GA.
Peter, could you please share the title of that book? looks very interesting and definitely would like to have a look at it.
Thank you!
Peter wrote:
and found this ingenious system
Well that system is not really new. New is that has not been disclosed before 
Peter wrote:
this ingenious system
According to Wikipedia, the pilot had a single lever power control where the Kommandogerät controlled fuel flow, propeller pitch, mixture, supercharging and ignition timing.
The cooling of the engine was complicated (and critical) enough that the cowling was as an integral part of the engine!
Well, the Gipsy engines are nicknamed the Dripsy for very good reasons.
Based on experience with an airframe designed by ex-WW II era Messerschmitt engineers, I can assure you that over the following 25 years they didn’t forget their propensity to embody precision manufacturing in the product…. versus creating a simple, effective design that doesn’t require it. But it’s fun to fiddle with
Actually a lot of high power pre-jet hardware was remarkable in its complexity and cost of manufacture but some of it still manages to work pretty well. A friend who is caretaker for a P-51 has recently completed a Merlin engine swap and is flying it a fair bit. I was blown away that unlike every other older UK engineered engine I’ve ever known it doesn’t leak a single drop of oil. He’s got it at Oshkosh this year, having it flown it half way across the US to get it there.
I agree entirely about the theft of the word ‘tech’ by computer people to describe their support role in instrumentation and control of real technology. It demonstrates their inward looking world view.
Reminds me of my Olivetti Divisumma calculator – you wonder who on earth managed to design things like this.
