Drop Tanks

[cobbs07]

Out of curiosity,what happens to drops tanks in real life once the fuel has gone,do the pilots drop them or do they get kept and they land with them still on for future use.If there was fuel still in them would it not make it hard to land ... especially on a carrier ? ... i'm sure there will be ex navy/marine aircrew/groundcrew out there who could clear the fog for me

Thanks !

[+331Killerbee]

Out of curiosity,what happens to drops tanks in real life once the fuel has gone,do the pilots drop them or do they get kept and they land with them still on for future use.If there was fuel still in them would it not make it hard to land ... especially on a carrier ? ... i'm sure there will be ex navy/marine aircrew/groundcrew out there who could clear the fog for me

Thanks !

 

It really depends on the situation. During normal operations, They are kept as best they can. They do cost Money. They are only Dropped durning Combat Operations......ie. On the Attack. Normally in A2A Situations. Jettisoned on the Attack. In other situations, It depends. Durning Emergencies, They are jettisoned. But in all other Cases, They are retained for futher use. Fuel is transferred from the Tanks first. That's to insure the Tanks are empty for Landings. I loaded My share of Drop Tanks in My Military Carrer. I hope this helps some....

 

331KillerBee

Edited May 29, 2006 by 331Killerbee

[cobbs07]

Thanks for that killerbee ... i should have known that money was involved somewhere ... :)

[Heck]

I've also read of drop tank shortages in both Korea, and Viet Nam, so, as Killerbee said, you only pickled them if it was absolutely necessary. Some wings in Korea had to reduce sortie rates at times due to the shortage of drop tanks.