My throttle controller wishlist

I have a Warthog throttle. I have a Winwing throttle. I am adapting a real F-4 throttle. But I would much rather have an adaptable throttle quadrant with lever options similar to the way you can swap stick grips.

Thrustmaster created the Cougar with the F-16 grip, but left it open for having a variety of compatible grips. It took them many years to get around to it, but they finally made a 2nd grip for their Warthog giving you a choice between an F/A-18 or F-16 grip. Then VKB and Virpil pop up with the ability to take TM grips and add them to their various grip options. I am in heaven with all of my VKB grips and both TM grips adapted to fit.

If I were VKB or Virpil, I would study the throttle quadrants being used in both commercial and military aircraft and design a modular box with 1 lever/axis and the option to easily connect more than one box together to build throttles with as many levers as you need. Each lever would be a stub with some sort of electrical connector for snapping on or screwing on various lever options. The range of motion should be mechanically configurable and calibrated in software so that you could match almost any range of motion used by real aircraft throttle levers.

For an F-16, you would need one "box" with one F-16 throttle lever/handle to install on that box's "stub". For WW2 aircraft, it could be two, three, or more boxes to cover all the possible levers of single and multi engine prop aircraft from fighter to bombers. There could be aircraft specific kits with all the required levers and a semi-replica box to mount arrange them correctly. There could even be discrete lever boxes with dx buttons for each position rather than solely analog lever boxes with options for 2-position, 3-position or more. With configuration software comparable to what VKB provides with their sticks, a single analog lever with optional detent plates could replicate both discrete and analog levers in a single package.

I can see this so clearly in my mind and I can see having a bench stocked with a bunch of the base lever boxes and lots of aircraft specific levers to plug and play as needed whenever I feel like flying a particular aircraft.

My dream would be to have two generic flight sim pits where I could swap controls quickly and easily to have matched dueling pairs... WW2 fights like P-51/Spitfire/P-47 vs Bf109/Fw190, Korea with F-86 vs MiG-15, Vietnam with F-4/F-8 vs MiG-19/MiG-21, and modern with F-14/F-15/F-16/F-18 vs MiG-23/MiG-29/Su-27/

I already enjoy flying various aircraft with the correct stick using a single base and several grips, why can't someone figure out how to do something like this for throttles in a way that would be cost-effective for end users and profitable for the manufacturer?

Well your Winwing already does this with swappable throttle grips and panels. They could just make an F16 throttle grip or whatever grip you like. Just gotta keep encouraging them.

How did you make the VKB adapter fit in your F18 grip? I have one lying around never got to convert mine as I’m ok with the Warbrd-TM combo (even put extension tube on it).