Drop tank stories

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gjs238

Tech Sergeant
1,889
329
Mar 26, 2009
Has anyone come across any crazy stories of drop tanks, like perhaps crashing through someone's roof, taking out someone's cow, landing in a convertible car with the top down, etc?
 
gjs238 said:
Has anyone come across any crazy stories of drop tanks, like perhaps crashing through someone's roof, taking out someone's cow, landing in a convertible car with the top down, etc?
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Few sailing boats, a jungle bath and a gogo cart .
 
Gentlemen

On March 31, 1944, while flying with the 154th Weather Squadron, 15th AF


Lt. Robert P. Zirkle scores a "destroyed" on an ME-109 while flying his P-38. As he described it, "… one of these enemy planes … attacked head on. Noting that the tracers from the ME were passing below me, I raised the nose of my plane to keep above his fire. As the ME approached, I stalled my ship and dropped down so that one of my belly tanks hit him. The enemy plane spun out of sight and I saw a parachute open."

Taken from

https://15thaf.org/154th_Weather_Sqdn/PDFs/The History of the 154th.pdf

Claim listed as confirmed, see USAF Historical Study 85 page 427


Eagledad
 
My father was born in 1928. He grew up in and near to Bremerhaven which is close to the german North Sea coast and thus was in easy range for many british aircraft on "sweeps" and I think also was in a "corridor" for british and american bomb raids and their escort fighters. School was rather irregular during the latter part of WW.II and in his abundant free time my dad roamed the countryside. He told me to have thrown himself to the ground more than once when a bomb-like object nearby came falling thru the low overcast, waiting for an explosion to happen which never came. When he got up again, many times he realized to his immense relief it was just another drop tank "pickled off" once it was empty.
 
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I have never heard of a drop tank taking out another aircraft but this is what a bird strike can do.
The KingAir tail is not much lighter structurally than a P-39/40/51 or similar aircraft so hitting a tank in flight, especially outboard where the torque effect would be far greater would definitely be hazardous as would hitting an outboard wing station.

The deicer boots probably make the KingAir more damage tolerant as tearing that rubber boot is no mean feat. Without that I am sure the damage would have been far more spectacular to say the least. Our maths practitioners may be able to calculate the differences but I am long past that.

 
I recently read where a new Spitfire VIII was delivered to an RAF base in Italy. The Wing Commander thought it looked so nice he would take it for himself. He was flying it, checking out enemy air activity and it came time to change from the belly drop tank to internal fuel. To his immense dismay the control for switching to the internal fuel tanks failed, leaving him running out of gas in brand new airplane that was full of fuel. Unable to make it home he had to bail out and floated around in the ocean for hours before one of his pilots was lucky to spot him.

I'd guess that making sure you can switch back to the internal fuel would be an item to confirm soon after you took off.
 
That depends on when you switch tanks. I read where a rookie P-51 pilot was over Yugoslavia and the flight of 4 Mustangs he was with were making abrupt turns left or right to avoid flak traps. When the drop tank fuel level got low the turn would cause the fuel to slosh and the engine to sputter. Not liking that, he punched off the tanks. The other 3 P-51's kept theirs until they were really empty. As a result he barely made it home.
 
I am aware of one particular incident on October 14th, 1959. A T-33 jet trainer began having engine problems. In an effort to make it back to Wright-Patterson (Dayton, Ohio) the pilot tried to jettison the wing-tip fuel tanks to lighten the aircraft. One of the fuel tanks, weighing some 1400 pounds with fuel, happened to fall on the Lanning residence. The tank went through several walls and killed the family dog, Puddles.
 
This story is loosely connected to drop tanks. I hope you like it nevertheless:
Some 20 years ago I built myself a fully faired monocoque recumbent tricycle, called a "velomobile" by enthusiasts, because I like the concept of doing fast, weather protected and comfortable long-distance trips without sacrificing physical fitness. Also, I wanted to try some metal work. Descriptions and pictures of the basic model here: Velemobile USA
I do not want to go into details deeply, but riding one is a good way to collect all sorts of comments and questions, from witty and interested to outright stupid or even aggressive.
If I am really fed up with answering to these questions over and over again, as an aviation buff I just say that this is a recycled drop tank from an old WW.II aircraft and smokers should step away a bit because some fuel may still be left in there.
Believe me or not, I really saw some people take a few steps back and eye the velomobile even more cautiously!
 
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A story I heard from a friend who was near the scene. Two soldiers see a Helicopter (probably a Westland Lynx) fly low overhead and seconds later hear a loud thump very close by. They wander a few yards to see what caused the thump and find a long green tube in a bush. They assume its just a practice round accidentally dropped by the Helicopter, pick it up and carry it to their Land Rover and then drive down a bumpy German track with the dummy rattling around in the back. They show it to a senior NCO who immediately clears the area and calls Bomb Disposal. The long tube was a TOW anti tank missile it was live and had been dropped because of a bird strike on the Helicopter.
 
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