Were drop tanks ever considered for airliners?
Posted by Ok_Teacher6490@reddit | aviation | View on Reddit | 10 comments
Just a random thought that occurred to me. Compressed paper tanks were a thing during ww2 and presumably fairly cost effective.
SpecialistPlastic729@reddit
Actually there are cases where additional fuel was added to B 717/MD-95 so they could be ferried overwater. Hawaiian Airlines had the done to get their 717 fleet to the Islands. They’re used for inter island flights.
The tanks were installed inside the fuselage since they weren’t carrying passengers.
Specialist_Reality96@reddit
Drops tanks are a shitty shitty solution to a problem, on average 60% of the fuel in a fast jet drop tank is used transporting the other 40% to the end of the conventional range. Commercially those numbers just don't make sense.
On slower aircraft like C-130's and helicopters the effect is less dramatic even still the L-100 does runt he external tanks.
LPNTed@reddit
Reduce freight and passenger weight, decrease efficiency for while they are attached.... For a marginal range increase? In THIS day and age, I cannot see a use case that makes ANY fiscal sense.
FoximaCentauri@reddit
Well OP said „ever“. Hard to imagine today, but the Idea would have made some sense from the 30s to the early 50s.
InsertCutesyPunHere@reddit
I mean, one guy tried to make a US-UK route that included air-to-air refuelling, shortly after that same guy had invented air-to-air refuelling.
Ok_Teacher6490@reddit (OP)
That's really what I had in mind - during that period perhaps at the start of passenger jet travel as a way to open up routes
SubjectiveAssertive@reddit
Not really, as it's easy to land a civil airliner to refil the tanks on land
Slightly harder to land a war plane behind say enemy lines or over the ocean
CardinalOfNYC@reddit
I also imagine it would amount to a minor ecological disaster to have 2000-4000 ocean crossing flights every single day day dropping tanks into the water.
Random61504@reddit
Are you saying that the fishes don't want an empty drop tank from a 767??
Legitimate-Sky-6820@reddit
The primary limitation for a fighter is volume, they cant carry much fuel so every bit helps.
And airliner is limit by the fuel weight and cargo weight balance, while you could load up the whole plane with fuel there would really be no use for it.