Question concerning fuel on operations
 

Does anyone know wether the planes were always filled up completely with fuel?

Certainly there was a difference between fighters and bombers, so any known detail on this topic is of interest. I would also like to learn about this for allied planes, i.e. a P-51D on a "short" flight maybe only took off with 50% fuel...

Thanks,

yogy

Re: Question concerning fuel on operations
 

With bombers, there was always a trade-off between payload and range, as few could carry the combination of maximum fuel and maximum weapons. So the amount of fuel carried would depend upon the target, and hence the weapon load.

I would expect fighters and fighter-bombers to be full at (almost) all times, because of the need for combat and/or loiter. An overload case for a fighter-bomber might be different - I don't know for sure that a Typhoon could take-off with its full fuel load when loaded with two 1000lb bombs, for example. One other possibility might be for the use of the 8th AF long range fighters over Normandy: the P-51 was required to empty its fuselage tank before taking part in manoeuvres, so for these (comparatively) short range operations they may not have used this tank.

Re: Question concerning fuel on operations
 

In the 325th Fighter Group, 15th AF, all P-51s were fully fueled and rearmed upon landing as one could never know when and where the next mission would be flown. “Short Mission” is difficult to define for us as the shortest distance to Yugoslavia was 137 miles and to North end of the Adriatic 310 miles although toward the end of the war there were some missions flown in support of operations in Northern Italy.
Cordially, Art Fiedler

Re: Question concerning fuel on operations
 

I was growing up during WWII, but just a few years later, made my living for several years fueling aircraft. In that time fueling both military and civilian aircraft never filled a tank to anything less than topped off. The preflight checks always were supposed to include removing fuel caps and insuring that tanks were filled to the cap level. I suppose some fuselage tanks might have had "sticks" but I cannot remember ever encountering one. One problem was most of the gauges were not very linear in graduations for a number of reasons and another IIRC, three point landing gear aircraft generally did not read correctly unless in level flight. Most WWII multi pilots I talked almost without fail mention takeoffs with their aircraft over gross much of the time.

Best Regards,

Artie Bob

Re: Question concerning fuel on operations
 

Guys, thanks for your input.

Was it at all possible to empty this tank in flight? How big is its percentage of the overall fuel capacity of a P-51D?

Still more detailed example:
Afaik, a Ju87D had a max. range of 800km. On the Eastern Front, they often "only" flew 50km to the target and then back. So, for performance, economics etc. it woul dmake sense to only take off at 50% fuel or so even if 100% would have been no problem technically. Was this "semi-fuelling" done for tactical reaons?

Re: Question concerning fuel on operations
 

Liebe -
My father was a P-51 Pilot in the 357th FG , 364th Sq.
Fuel Tanks were always Full as the Rule was when Fighters
had to Cross a Body of Water like Channel or North Sea , Fuel
was imperative. You couldn't land on Water and Walk Away or Save
the A/C.The Fuselage Tank , when Full , altered the Center of Gravity.
My Dad ALWAYS used it on Take Off and Climb out to use it up
ASAP. If carrying Drop Tanks , he would then switch to them to
use the Fuel , saving Wing Tanks as you had to eject Drop tanks
before Air Combat or Strafing.
Mike

Re: Question concerning fuel on operations
 

P-51

wing - 2 x 92gal US
fuselage - 85gal US
drop tank - 2 x 75gal, or 2 x 110gal, or 2 x 150gal, or 2 x 165gal

Re: Question concerning fuel on operations
 

Did my flying on night fighters post war. It was always the practise to fill the tanks on landing. At first in Egypt on Mosquitos, we all wore "brothel creepers", suede shoes with about inch thick soft rubber soles. Then we converted onto the Meteor and soon discovered that when tanks were full during the cool night, when the sun got to them during the day they overflowed. To get into the aircraft one found oneself paddling in fuel and the shoes rapidly disintegrated!!!.
Recalling the Mosquito era, we did regular firing sorties of short duration and so refuelling did not take place until tanks had been run down, in order to shorten turn round times. One pilot found out the hard way that he should check his guages and ran out of fuel while over the air to air range on the North coast of Cyprus. he had to put it down on the beach, wrecked the aircraft, but walked away.

Re: Question concerning fuel on operations
 

Thanks again, guys.

Altogether, it seems that single-engined fighters were always 100% filled up but bombers / 2-engined A/C not necessarily.

Does anyone have a kind of official order or recommendation on this topic? Especially from Luftwaffe side, it would be interesting. I only know one story from Rudel when he ordered his personnel to only rearm but not refuel.