skyskooter
Airman
- 33
- Jul 8, 2016
I am sure I have read that the Shooting Star was faster with tip tanks than without.
The first production aircraft with wingtip tanks?
- Thread starter Conslaw
- Start date
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GregP
Major
Not sure about the P-80, but the T-33 was prohibited from aerobatics when there was fuel in the tip tanks. I'd assume the P-80 was similar due to similar design. It was also prohibited from negative-g maneuvers because the engine would quit due to lack of an inverted fuel system.
Normal procedures called for taking off on mains and then switching to tip tanks until they were dry before returning to mains.
Normal procedures called for taking off on mains and then switching to tip tanks until they were dry before returning to mains.
All aerobatics, or just rolling maneuvers? I have this memory from the mists of time of reading that it was a polar moment, not a wing stress issue, as long as tip quantities were balanced.
MIflyer
1st Lieutenant
Oh, I've done a roll in a T-33A and I'm sure there must have been fuel in the tip tanks. Take a look at the drawing provided with the old Hawk T-33A model kit (will be attached later). Without those tip tanks there ain't a lotta gas on board.
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What's it like? I've heard the T33 described (by a Korean War F86 pilot) as "a Mack truck with a shit hot power steering system and lousy brakes".
MIflyer
1st Lieutenant
It was very smooth!
I have not tried to taxi the T-Bird but I understand that it is a real chore. There is no nosewheel steering as such; you tap the brakes to try to get the nosewheel to point in the direction you want to go and it responds based on whether it likes your curses.
I have not tried to taxi the T-Bird but I understand that it is a real chore. There is no nosewheel steering as such; you tap the brakes to try to get the nosewheel to point in the direction you want to go and it responds based on whether it likes your curses.
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Just like the flying club's T34. Designed to expand your vocabulary.
EDIT: PS; Our early production 1900s came with a very touchy, sensitive pneumatic nosewheel steering system that made taxiing a captains-only operation, and sometimes led to embarrassing excursions from taxiway centerline. Eventually Beech came out with an STC allowing removal of the steering system and letting the nosewheel free caster while Beech developed a new manual steering system.
Suddenly, steering became easy and FOs were allowed to taxi. The free castering steering was so intuitive and easy; a gentle nudge on the appropriate brake and a touch of asymmetric thrust, and it would go right where you want. And it actually extended shimmy damper service life. Maintenance was real quick to yank out the touchy old system and when the time came, took their sweet time putting in the new manual steering system Beech eventually came out with. The new manual system steered like a Mack truck with no power steering, and was wildly unpopular with us pilots.
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MIflyer
1st Lieutenant
The T-33A (or TF-80C as it was first known) was faster than the F-80 because the extended length (about 2 ft ahead of the wing and another 2 ft aft of the wing) gave it better aerodynamics. Aside from that, it probably had a later version of the J-33.
Later F-80's were modified to have the T-33 style centerline tip tanks.
I recall reading in the USAF Safety Magazine about having to blow the tip tanks off. They were departing from Mountain Home AFB and the gust front from a storm caught them from behind while they were still on the takeoff roll. Suddenly their airspeed dropped and they realized they were not going to make it off. So they blew the tip tanks and got off that way.
MIflyer
1st Lieutenant
Here is a good picture of the P-80's early faired-in versions of the P-38 style drop tanks.
No permanently-attached stores pylon that produces drag even after you drop the tank.
swampyankee
Chief Master Sergeant
- 4,031
- Jun 25, 2013
If even semi-well designed, no net drag and quite a bit of bending moment relief. Also, putting the tanks there puts then as far away from the pilot as possible.
For many early jet fighters, the tip tanks were there because their engines were both bulky and not very efficient; they needed all the fuel volume they could manage.
