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When you turn any engine "upside down" you complicate oil scavenging, make air/oil separation more challenging, and increase the risk of hydraulic lock in the cylinders as the engine cools down. More a problem in air cooled engines with their looser tolerances, but liquid cooled engines are not immune. That's why "inverted" engines are in the minority everywhere except in the lands of DeHaviland, Daimler, and Junkers.Why not? What is "inverted". In aero engines a huge number were rotary or radial. Some are horizontally opposed today. The convention of V engines being with cylinders pointing up comes from the car industry and modern times in the 1930s there were no such conventions.
Yes but I do not know what steps were taken to meet the self sealing criteria for combat tanks. IIRC the p-39 ferry tank was a slipper like but only 170 gal.Well, the Mustang MkI/IA had a 1000 mile range on internal fuel alone, and given their use of the airplane, which was not for long range escort, that was more than enough and verged on twice the range of a Spitfire.
Were the paper tanks self-sealing?
The tank shown is the 150 gal 'flat tank. The 200 was a bulbous monstrosity in ltd use from July through August 1943.Hey MIflyer:
re: "The P-39 could carry a 200 gal ferry tank as well, and I wonder if there was any relationship between it and the 200 gal P-47 tank."
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I remembered building Col. Gabreski's P-47 when I was a kid, the Monogram(?) model had the flat steel 200 USgal DT. From what I can see in the P-400 picture it is the same type of DT.
I offered him archive documents to fix serious errors / give additional info to two of his videos, he didn't seem to be interested. Which is a shame
as he obviously puts in a lot of work, and makes videos which thousands of people enjoy.
What strikes me the most reading the posts in this thread is the attitude of the USAF compared to the RAF, it must have been frustrating seeing P47-P51's flying to Germany when your own plane after 4 years of war could still barely cross the channel.
When you country is subject to enemy bombing and thousands of your countrymen have been killed and thousands more maimed you have different priorities for your fightersWhat strikes me the most reading the posts in this thread is the attitude of the USAF compared to the RAF, it must have been frustrating seeing P47-P51's flying to Germany when your own plane after 4 years of war could still barely cross the channel.
I also doubt that the attitude of the USAAF
When you country is subject to enemy bombing and thousands of your countrymen have been killed and thousands more maimed you have different priorities for your fighters
Th British didn't have a problem with range, they had a problem with performance, would you want to fly to Berlin in a Spitfire MkV. The Americans were not there at the time. Things were solved with the Mustang air frame and the RR two stage engine, they made their debut at Dieppe but not as one aircraft.Totally agree, but that doesn't excuse the fact both the RAF and Luftwaffe pilots complained of short range when a solution was at hand. Look at the 109 in the BoB, they used DT's to deliver aircraft to front line units then didn't use them during the actual battle, same as the MkV during the lean into France, both planes suffered through lack of range, the American's on the other hand straight to tanks, fixed.
Credit where credit is due, they wanted range and made it happen, simple as that.
Americans and Europeans think differently about range. The USAAF would not like the idea of fighters that could not make it out of Texas without refueling.