|
In aviation, a drop tank (external tank, wing tank, or belly tank) is used to describe auxiliary fuel tanks externally carried by aircraft. A drop tank is expendable and often jettisonable. External tanks are commonplace on modern military aircraft and occasionally found in civilian ones, although the latter are less likely to be discarded except in the event of emergency. ==History== The drop tank was used during the Spanish Civil War to allow fighter aircraft to carry additional fuel for long-range escort flights without requiring a dramatically larger, heavier, less maneuverable fuselage. During World War II, the German Luftwaffe began using external fuel tanks with the introduction of a 300 liter (80 US gallon) light alloy model for the Ju 87R, a long range version of the ''Stuka'' dive bomber, in early 1940. The Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter also used this type of drop tank, starting with the Bf 109E-7 variant introduced in August 1940. Fitted also to the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the 300 liter tank, available in at least four differing construction formats — including at least one impregnated paper material, single-use version — and varying only slightly in appearance, became the standard volume for most subsequent drop tanks in Luftwaffe service, with a rarely used 900 litre (238 U.S. gallon), fin-stabilized large capacity drop tank used with some marks of the Messerschmitt Bf 110 heavy fighter and other twin-engined Luftwaffe combat aircraft. The first drop tanks were designed to be discarded when empty or in the event of combat or emergency in order to reduce drag, weight, and to increase maneuverability. Modern external tanks may be retained in combat, to be dropped in an emergency. The Allies commonly used them to allow fighters increased range and patrol time over continental Europe. The RAF used such external fuel tanks in 1942, during the transit of Supermarine Spitfires to Malta. The Imperial Japanese navy design specification for what came to be the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter, included endurance with drop tanks of two hours at full power, or six to eight hours at cruising speed. Drop tanks were commonly used with the Zero, even on Combat Air patrol (CAP). The Zero entered service in 1940. Drop tanks were prohibited on fighter aircraft and on medium bombers by the so-called Bomber Mafia in the United States Army Air Corps prior to direct U.S. involvement in World War II. The bomber theorists assumed that bombers would be self-defending; they saw long-range fighters as "a myth", as they could be easily forced to drop the tanks by minor harassment just at the beginning of the raid.〔 Long-range medium bombers were viewed as direct competition to their goal of vast air fleets of heavy bombers. Starting in 1941, airmen such as Benjamin S. Kelsey and Oliver P. Echols worked quietly to get drop tank technology added to American fighters such as the Lockheed P-38 Lightning. It was only with drop tanks supplying at least of extra fuel per fighter that the P-38 could have carried out Operation Vengeance, the shootdown of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. For this mission, each fighter carried one drop tank of approximately , and a larger one of approximately . Even after such experience showed the necessity for drop tanks, inflexible thinkers such as General Ira C. Eaker had to be transferred out of commanding positions so that drop tanks and range extension plans could be widely implemented in 1944 for American escort fighters. External drop tanks also turned the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt from a short-range interceptor into long-range escort and air superiority fighter, enabling it to accompany bombers all the way from British Isles to Germany, and back. The most-often used fuel tanks for single-engined American fighters in Europe were the 75-gallon (284 litre) capacity all-metal tank, made from two halves of formed aluminum with a prominent seam running along the tank's midline, and an impregnated-paper 110-gallon (409 litre) one-use drop tank. Another common drop tank was the 150-to-165-gallon model used by P-51s, P-47s and P-38s. The P-38 could also carry two 300-to-330-gallon drop tanks for its longest sorties. This teardrop-shaped tank design was long and in diameter at its widest point. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Drop tank」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|