Quote:
Originally Posted by Kurfürst
I am not quite sure if I got your calculations right - are you saying that the consumed amount was sufficient for a very rough average of 793.3 fuel loads per day for September 1940 for example?
Now the calculation doesn't account for non-operational flights - this was looked into earlier, at around post no 87. It was found that three s-e Sqns that were looked at flew about 230 hours of training/non-operational flights in a single first week of August 1940:
54 sqn for example:
http://www.oldrafrecords.com/records/511/5110313.jpg
32 Squadron flew 60 and-a-half non-operational hours in the first week of August 1940, all of which were transfers to and from their forward base.
43 Squadron flew approximately 10 non-operational hours in the first week of August 1940, namely one transfer of six aircraft and their return and another transfer of seven aircraft, and three night practise flights.
54 Squadron flew approximately 159 non-operational hours
This works out as a rough avarage of 76 non-operational flight per Sqn per week, or about 300 hours a month per Squadron. |
And as you have also noted, there was a rise in consumption of 87 octane fuel as frontline operations intensified. The Merlins and Mercurys could still use 87 octane fuel and for secondary duties would not need to use 100 octane fuel.
Remember also that the figures are for fuel
consumed, not fuel
issued , and my rough calculations assume that all aircraft used a full fuel load for every sortie, which, of course, didn't always happen. For example, if a Hurricane lands after a half hour flight with 45 gallons of fuel left, the fuel tank would then be topped up with 45 gallons - next sortie it lands with an empty fuel tank. To undertake two sorties that Hurricane consumed 135 gallons of fuel, not 180 gallons. Entire squadrons often landed after a sortie with half full fuel tanks.
BTW: Other grades of fuel means that 87 Octane wasn't the only grade used - from memory there was also 73 and 80 octane used? I think the Gypsy and Gypsy Major engines used in the likes of Tiger Moths could use these lower grades? (Getting way OT here)