DT/Bomb Size

[cav58d]

I have a feeling that the size of our 1000 pound bombs are not modeled large enough...I was in a flight on ponys tonight...1/2 the guys had 1000 pounders, and the other with drop tanks....The size of the DT's dwarfed the big bombs...Surely the 1000 pound bombs were larger than DT's right?

[eilif]

Drop tanks are pretty dang big i think the sizes are acurate.

[Pooh21]

I am betting they weigh as much or maybe more then the bombs too

[hubsonfire]

I am betting the DT is larger, dimensionally, than the bomb. I base this on nothing but drunken intuition.

[cav58d]

Okay...I have found tons of pictures on the net and the DT's seem to be the perfect fit....unfortunately in the 90 some odd minutes I searched I could not find a single picture of a pony loaded with 1000 pounders?  Can someone please post one?  I still feel like the bombs look to small

[Squire]

No, the drop tanks were almost always larger. Look at photos of P-47s with DTs, they are very large. Even the 75 gallon DT is as big as a 500 lber. The largest DTs were quite a bit bigger than any bomb they carried.

P-51s rarely carried 1000 lbers in WW2. They were not used in that role very much. When they did do Jabo, they tended to use the 500 lb bomb.

ETO P-51s were used almost exclusively as escort with the USAAF, the RAF did use them for Jabo with 2nd TAF, but again, the 500 lber was the size of choice. In the Pacific, they were again, mainly used as escorts.

The big use of the P-51 as a fighter bomber came in Korea.

[BTAirsol]

Based on the weight of water, 1gal = 8.33 pounds. Then if fuel weighs close to the mass of water, 75 gal drop weighs 624.75 pounds. 150 gal drop tank weighs 1,249.5 pounds. Area needs to be calculated for the drop tank, but I bet they are close to this size of the bombs. The casing on alum drops vs steel bombs will be different in mass weight.

[mars01]

100LL Avgas weighs 6lbs per gallon

[snake339]

heavy pony

[Widewing]

Originally posted by BTAirsol
Based on the weight of water, 1gal = 8.33 pounds. Then if fuel weighs close to the mass of water, 75 gal drop weighs 624.75 pounds. 150 gal drop tank weighs 1,249.5 pounds. Area needs to be calculated for the drop tank, but I bet they are close to this size of the bombs. The casing on alum drops vs steel bombs will be different in mass weight.

For 100/130 avgas, calculate using 6 pounds per gallon (close enough for government work).

Thus:

75 gallons x 6 = 450 lb + 45 lb for tank and hardware, or 495 pounds per tank.

P-38 with 150 gallon tanks: 150 x 6 = 900 lb + 70 lb for tank and hardware, or 970 pound per tank.

But, for real drop tanks the capacities were usually different from their general classification. Here's some examples:

75 gallon steel tank (P-47 and P-51): Actual capacity was 84 gallons.
108 gallon steel or paper tank (P-47 and P-51): Actual capacity was really 108 gallons.
150 gallon steel tank (P-38 and P-47 in SWPA): Actual capacity was 160 gallons.
200 gallon steel tank (P-47): Actual capacity was 215 gallons.
200 gallon paper tank (P-47): Actual capacity was 205 gallons.
300 gallon steel tank (P-38): Actual capacity was 310 gallons.

My regards,

Widewing

[viper215]

Originally posted by snake339
heavy pony

Nice pic


P.S cav did you ever see the map my squadie made?

[Guppy35]

Picture worth a thousand words  Bomb is a thousand pounder.  Drop tank on the top photo is a 38 tank.

Bottom photo is a 110 gallon tank, and the nice and light 108 gallon paper tank the Mustangs used in England.

[cav58d]

good work....HTC this thread cam be officially closed =)