More questions you'd feel dumb asking anywhere else but here...

[John Howling Mouse]

I looked around the internet but could not find a definitive answer:

Can any/some/all wingtip fueltanks be jettisoned in flight the way underwing fueltanks usually can?

[Daryl J.]

Isn't there a video around somewhere of the F-80 Shooting Star jettisoning its tip tanks?   Granted, they are underwing rather than integrated and secured like the plank-wing F-84B/C/D/E/G.   Those were dealt with only by ground crew  IIRC.

How 'bout the Canberra?

[Cobra]

Hey John, i think you might be able to find that Footage on Youtube!!!! Don't quote me but...thought i saw something like that on Youtube! try putting F-80 into the search box and see what you get!

[nev]

I'm glad this thread has resurfaced cos I thought of a perfect question for it last night whilst watching The Clone Wars.

Now that I have seen all 7 Star Wars movies, may I ask, why exactly do Stormtroopers wear armour?  Because I have never seen it do *anything* to protect them.

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

In that Galaxy far, far away, it was probably a way of subverting individualism even more than the cloning process itself, and was handy for intimidating those populations of rebelious systems...... in the movie world it was probably so that folks with a limited attention span could quickly differentiate the baddies from the goodies in the action scenes 

HtH

Ian
(tongue firmly rooted in cheek)

[Aircav]

It keeps all the bits in one peice 

[Amphion]

While googling "jettison wingtip tank" I got these hits:

• P-2E Neptune "....In an emergency, the new tip tanks could be jettisoned"
• F-80 The Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star Pilot's Flight Operating Manual states that tip tanks can be jettisoned at any speed up to 390 knots. Above 390 knots, jettison only in cases of emergency.
• F-104 At least they performed tests to that effect.
• Canberra B.2 Had a button for it on the cockpit instrument panel

Im shure theres more examples out there......

[PR19_Kit]

How 'bout the Canberra?

Daryl,

You obviously have a 'thing' about Canberras........

The answer is yes, but Cans 'tip' tanks aren't at the tip, they are under it, pretty much like a P-80 Shooting Star.

There's a documented instance of a Canberra pilot losing his tanks just after take-off from Hawaii International en route to the Grapple tests in the Pacific. It was caused by a current surge firing two of the three explosive bolts holding the tanks when the cartridge starters refused to work. The tanks landed inside the airfield perimeter without igniting and were later converted to a twin-hulled boat for the use of the USAF crews based at Hickham Field, co-located at the same site.

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

The tanks landed inside the airfield perimeter without igniting and were later converted to a twin-hulled boat for the use of the USAF crews based at Hickham Field, co-located at the same site.

Y'see you just wouldn't get this stuff anywhere else but here..... great anecdote, Kit.

Ian

[The Rat]

Jettisoning tip tanks on a P/F-80 would have to be an extreme emergency methinks, as when they were installed they actually improved both its speed and handling.

[Ed S]

The tiptanks on the T-33 were also jettisonable.  But you really didn't want to do it.  There was a distinct possibility that one would drop and not the other.  The sudden yaw and roll would make for one heck of a ride.

Ed

[John Howling Mouse]

Thanks, guys.  You are the best!  The T-33 type of outboard tanks are the ones I was wondering about so that question has been answered.

Next question?     

[Daryl J.]

TSR.2.    What do 'T', 'S', and 'R' mean and was there a TSR.1?



Daryl J.

[Aircav]

If I remember right the TSR.1 was a version of the Fairey Swordfish, but I could be wrong.

[PR19_Kit]

Tactical Strike Reconnaisance

And the TSR1 was the prototype Swordfish, yes.

But was there, or will there be, a TSR3?