Drop tanks were auxiliary fuel tanks used in combat aircraft during WWII to extend their range. They allowed fighter planes to escort bombers deep into enemy airspace, but were vulnerable to enemy fire. The tanks could be easily dropped once a battle began, and were later adopted by racers for aerodynamic racing bodies.
A drop tank is an auxiliary fuel tank used in military combat aircraft to extend their flight range. These pot-bellied tanks, as they were commonly called, were carried under the aircraft and easily dumped once the fighting began. The belly tank was released from the plane when the pilot flipped a switch inside the cockpit. The fuel tank fell from the plane, hence the name drop tank. If the tank did not come loose, it became an attractive target for enemy pilots who could easily blow up the plane by hitting the exposed fuel tank.
In World War II, bombing missions were the key to victory for both the Nazis and the Allies. Bombers were large, slow, and highly vulnerable to enemy fighters. In an effort to protect the bombers, both sides needed to design an aircraft that would allow fighter jets protective cover for the bombers. The problem was that the bombers could fly much deeper into enemy airspace than the fighters’ fuel supply would allow. The result was the arrival of the drop tank.
By designing a fuel tank that could be carried under the fighter’s fuselage, its range could be drastically extended. This added range allowed the fighters to escort the bombers deep into enemy airspace and to fight off enemy warplanes that tried to shoot down the bombers. The danger lay in the exposure of the fuel tank to enemy fire. A single bullet could cause a dangerous explosion that would destroy the fighter plane.
A mechanism was developed that allowed fuel tanks to be moved out of the way once a battle had started. This new drop tank gave the fighter plane greater flight distance and easy extraction when the fight began. The benefit of fighter protection soon added increased drop tank usage by each branch of the air services on both sides of the war. The main battle tank soon found a following in the civilian population of the United States.
Salt flat speed racers adopted the drop tank for aerodynamic racing bodies. Drop tanks became known as belly tanks and were all the rage in 1950s drag racing. Many world land speed records were set using a Ford V-8 Flathead mounted on an Army surplus scrap tank. . Many records set by those land-based pot-bellied tanks remained unbroken for years. Eventually, space age designs superseded the older drop tank designs and set records of their own.
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