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[Talyn]

WW2 108 gal. Paper Drop Tanks

A little known use of paper during WW2 was in the manufacture of paper drop tanks used by the 8th Air Force. The British devised a system using laminated and glued paper that would hold 108 gallons of fuel - for one mission! Plastic model kit makers are well aware of the paper drop tanks as some of them offer both the "paper" and standard metal tank options.

WW2 Paper Drop Tanks

 

[Talyn]

BTW - The first USAAC fighter to escort bombers over Berlin was the P-38.

11 February 1939

11 February 1939: Barely two weeks after its first flight, First Lieutenant Benjamin Scovill ("Ben") Kelsey, U.S. Army Air Corps, took the prototype Lockheed XP-38, 37-457, on a record-breaking transcontinental flight from March Field, Riverside, California, to Mitchel Field, Long Island, New York.

www.thisdayinaviation.com

 

[The Night Rider]

BTW - The first USAF fighter to escort bombers over Berlin was the P-38.

View attachment 79878

Given the USAF didn't exist until September of 1947 I think you meant the United States Army Air Corps.

 

[Talyn]

Given the USAF didn't exist until September of 1947 I think you meant the United States Army Air Corps.

Yes, and you know what I intended.

Fixed

 

[TEXASforLIFE]

1 of my favorite planes next to the p-51's