Since there has been a lot of discussion on fuel and explosions and fire, I thought I might point out a few facts about gasoline. Gasoline is not explosive. Gasoline vapor, however is. (This is not entirely correct either, as it does not technically "explode", but "burn explosively" , which when contained within a fuel tank, can hardly be distinguished from an explosion) It's not the fuel in the tank, but the vapor that is most dangerous. This is why the Russians pressurized their fuel tanks (on many planes) with exhaust gas from the engine, the exhaust gas displaced the gasoline vapor and rendered the fuel tank nearly inert. There was of course always the danger of leaks (which would be vaporized in the slip stream just like in a carburetor) catching fire, but this was nowhere near as dangerous or as likely as a vapor explosion.
So, that nearly empty drop tank is probably more dangerous than the full one you left with! Get rid of the damn thing.
I hope SOW has the finer points of these things built in
Edit: upon further reading I see Swiss commented on this as well. It is really not generally understood by most people though.
Last edited by BadAim; 09-21-2010 at 05:18 PM.
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09-21-2010, 05:11 PM
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