Fuel Fraction & Range of WWII Aircraft
- Thread starter Zipper730
- Start date
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drgondog
Major
Zipper - the Wing design is number 1 Parasite Drag fraction, as well as Induced drag based on span, Aspect Ratio, Lift Coefficient, Tip design.
Not much of those details are visible in your drawing.
FWIIW - the best cruise speed for a full internal combat loaded 51 - now wing tanks - was about 300mph TAS at 25,000 feet. Yielded about 5 mpg. The P-47D, F4F, F6F were in the range of 3mpg at optimal cruise altitude. I can't remember the P-38 figures but optimal cruise was near 225mph. I have no idea what the Mosquito cruise data is.
No actual speeds involved but from this account a P/R Mosquito had a higher economical cruise speed than a P-51 with external tanks, I presume the situation reversed when the tanks were dropped. From here www.mossie.org/stories/Norman_Malayney_2.htm
Quote "The Mosquito met the fighter escort as planned; but now heavily loaded with l,000 gallons of fuel, flew at a severe speed disadvantage. Geary attempted to maintain economical cruising speed but outpaced the P-51s and was forced to throttle-back to continue flying formation with them. The Mustangs had long-range drop tanks and were also fully loaded. Once involved with enemy action, they would jettison their tanks, and therefore, were attempting to conserve and obtain maximum range from their fuel supply. This exacerbated the problem. It was a very-long flight to the Polish border, and on three occasions Geary throttled-back and did not receive the mileage planned.
A preview of history repeating itself; think photo Banshees with Panther escorts in Korea, recon Voodoos with Super Sabres in cold war days, and Vigilantes with Phantoms in Vietnam.
drgondog
Major
Interesting but not definitive... the mission range was the framework for operations planning. A clean Mustang at 46"MP and 2700 RPM cruised at 380-395 at max Continuous Power for 2/3 the combat radius of much lower RPM/MP for max cruise.
I read similar about one of the Mosquito raids which were escorted by Mustang IIIs. I would imagine its a planning nightmare. The range is the same and the engines are the same, the Mosquito has slightly more fuel per engine. The Mustang uses more fuel on any engine setting while carrying tanks and less fuel when it has dropped them. As fuel is burned off the cruising speed increases slightly for both planes but differently. Then there is the unknown, how much the Mustangs must spend on combat power if intercepted, that is when the Mosquito crew want the Mustang crew to have as much as possible.
- Thread starter
- #47
That's a good point. For the most part, I had largely operated around the assumption that the aspect ratio would be around 6.5 to 7.5. That probably reveals little.
That would have been on variable that would have helped the P-51 out: It could cruise at a speed that was also tactically useful for combat, despite fuel burn being a little high.
The P-38's cruise speed down at 225 mph would have made it harder to pull off longer legged flights, especially at altitude. That said, they did seem to do okay as photo-reconnaissance aircraft.
Wait, the airplane could do 380-395 mph while only losing a third the range over the 300 mph cruise figures? If I do those numbers right that means you could fly 400-500 miles (I guess it was the supercruise of it's day).
Yeah, I've heard the same thing.
I'm not sure I grasp using the escorts as the Mosquito could outmaneuver the Me.109 and Fw.190 at altitude.
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No need to read the link I provided, you just keep firing questions and I will keep doing the reading to serve the answers to you.
- Thread starter
- #49
Actually, I did read the link. I kind of read it after I asked the questions though.
Well it was about encounters with 262s. I presume escorts were called for when aircraft were lost flying alone or were going to heavily defended areas.
- Thread starter
- #51
That I'm aware of. The reason I used the Fw190 and Me109 as estimates for a reference was that it was the previously biggest threat to the Mosquitos.
When it came to heavily defended areas, I guess extra fighters can add more aircraft to the equation when the bombers would just be overwhelmed.
- Thread starter
- #52
No problem., family events are of greater importance.
It was a photo recon aircraft.
- Thread starter
- #54
True enough, both the bomber and recon variants of the Mosquitos are equally unequipped with defensive armament.
- Thread starter
- #55
Wait, it could fly 400+ miles at 380-395 mph?
Shortround6
Major General
It might do better than that,
See:
from Zeno's Warbirds.
Zeno's had a number of these charts and the manuals section of this site has a bunch more.
Other Mechanical Systems Tech.
The flight manuals are organized by country.
See:
from Zeno's Warbirds.
Zeno's had a number of these charts and the manuals section of this site has a bunch more.
Other Mechanical Systems Tech.
The flight manuals are organized by country.
