Why are the throttle levers for the Comet's outboard engines shaped funny? The throttle levers for the Comet's outboard (#1 and #4) engines are weirdly shaped, with flanges that extend up and partially over the throttle levers for the inboard (#2 and #3) engines:



(Image cropped and annotated by me; original by Geni at Wikimedia Commons)

Why are the Comet's outboard throttle levers shaped like this?
Sean, this will probably surprise you as much as it did me, but the answer is that it is intended to help keep the hand of the pilot operating the throttles on them and not have it slip off. In my opinion, it's a nifty little design detail.