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From the ground to the sky, one could construct an extensive bookshelf filled with the commonly misunderstood expressions of the English language. A prime example is “balls to the wall,” a phrase that might resemble lyrics from a song by Lil Jon. However, this idiom originated long before the rapper’s time and has a surprisingly different background.
The saying, which implies giving something your all, has often been mislinked to the railroad industry. The misconception stems from steam locomotives that featured a centrifugal governor—a device that utilizes spinning weights on arm ends to regulate steam input to the cylinders, essentially the opposite of variable valve timing, aimed at preventing the engine from overspeeding. When operating at high speeds, the governor would run “balls to the wall.” However, the true origin, much like the similar phrase “balls out,” alludes to a much hairier scenario than that of a fast train.
The Oxford English Dictionary notes that the phrase was first recorded in 1967 during a U.S. air raid on Hanoi in the Vietnam War. Rather than signifying a dogfight scenario where extreme G-forces might affect a pilot’s anatomy, it simply means to push the throttle fully forward. In various U.S. military aircraft, the throttle lever often had a ball-shaped knob at its end, and moving it forward meant pushing the throttle as far as possible—interpreted as going “balls to the wall.”
However, there is still some ambiguity regarding which aircraft the phrase originated from. A preliminary examination of notable U.S. military planes from the Vietnam era like the B-52 Stratofortress and the F-4 Phantom II reveals that they did not typically feature ball-topped throttles. This might be due to the possibility that the term was in informal use as early as the 1950s, according to accounts from Korean War veterans cited by Slate. While ball-topped throttles also seem absent from the F-86 Sabre or P-80 Shooting Star, an exploration of World War II aircraft ultimately brings us closer to the answer.
Inspecting the cockpits of aircraft like the P-51 Mustang or P-38 Lightning reveals throttles controlled by round knobs at the ends of their levers. The plural nature of the term suggests it originated in the cockpit of a multi-engine plane, where individual engines are manipulated. Thus, the P-38 emerges as a likely source. Likewise, the similar phrase “balls out” can be traced to a WWII aircraft, specifically the single-engine P-47 Thunderbolt.
While pinpointing the exact aircraft that inspired the phrase is likely impossible, it’s plausible that some WWII veterans passed down the expression to the pilots they trained to fly during the Korean War, who remembered it from earlier usage not documented in records. The definitive truth may remain elusive, but what we do know is that early fighter pilots were certainly not lacking in bravery.
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