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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 0155.PDF
January vjik, 1949 FLIGHT EXTERNAL TANKS Modes and Methods of Carrying Extra Fuel Ghater Meteor 7 demonstrator, complete with 190-gallon belly tank and two \OQ-gallon wing tanks. NO sooner had fighters been "cleaned up" to theextent of shedding—aerodynamically speaking—anentire wing with its associated struts, and the com- plete undercarriage, than auxiliary fuel tanks began to appear like fungoid growths to mar their appearance and performance. For reasons not readily discovered (though technical and tactical considerations must have underlain them), the old R.A.F. and Fleet Air Arm fighter biplanes rarely operated with external tanks; in the years imme- diately preceding the monoplane era, however, a certain vogue ior these aids was discernible among American "pursuit" and "attack" machines, notably those of • Curtiss and Boeing origin. The value of supplementary tanks on fighters was not truly appreciated in Great Britain until the war; even then, some of the first installations were made to extend the ferrying range rather than to increase tactical effectiveness. Typical of these was the fitting of two "ferry" tanks on the Hurricane for delivery flights across Africa to the Middle East. Once again, the U.S. Army and Navy, to whom range in a fighter had long been considered vital, gave a lead, their ambitious " drop-tank" schemes culminating in special installations for Mustang, Lightning and Thunderbolt escort fighters which, toward the end of the war, were penetrating hundreds of miles over enemy territory. The coming of the jet fighter, with its voracious fuel demands, has led to further study of external tanks, and some of the more recent installations are depicted on these pages. Though fighters remain the principal class of military aircraft to which such tanks have been applied, these may also be seen to-day on attack and reconnais- sance aircraft, and even on long- range "patrol bombers," one example of which—the Lock- heed P2V Truculent Turtle—holds the world's record for distance in a straight line with a flight of 11,235 miles, from Perth, Australia, to Columbus, Ohio. On this occasion, of course, additional to the wing-tip tanks, the Turtle had extra internal tankage, and the total fuel load represented something like i£ times the empty weight of the aircraft. Rocket-assisted take-off was imperative. One of the first civil installations of drop tanks is that on the Beechcraft Bonanza, in which Capt. William P. Odom lately established a new light aircraft distance record of 2,375 miles. The ensuing brief survey is concerned only with external tankage carried by, or towed by, aircraft, and takes no account of aerial refuelling from an independent tanker aircraft, a technique perfected in this country and lately extended to America. The merits and possibilities of this system have been the subject of frequent discussion. Among the drop-tank installations depicted, those on A D.H. Vamftire 3, with 100-gallon wing tanks, leaves Hatfhld for Norway.
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