Large wing tanks, from the factory to the field ...

[Mark Allen M]

So that's how they made those large wing tanks. Interesting. I believe these are the 315 gal P-38 type tanks?









































Below various photos of P-47 ferry flights to and from Meeks Field Iceland by the 2nd Service Group.

[Snake45]

Fabulous! I've posted a link to this on my model car board.

[Chris Brame]

Learning something new every day - are there any surviving wooden tanks?
I feel sorry for the young guy with the rash - must have itched something fierce

[steve dickey]

Very interesting set. Although I couldn't tell in what picture if any of them, what did they use for sealant?
Chris I thought he was just freckled but it lookes like something on the original nagative, maybe?? Since you see it almost everywhere else??
Then again it may be some kinda oil as it appears to be on the wood, the support stand, the floor... Although the two dudes on the right seem clean?
Makes you wonder why they don't have shirts on... hmmm

[JohnB]

I know aluminium doesn't grow on trees and was in great demand during the war, but in terms of weight and time/resources used to build the tanks, metal would make more sense.

[AG pilot]

A very interesting series of photographs. I had no idea that they were made that way, and look at all the man-hours it took to make one.

Thanks for posting those Mark.

[Pat Carry]

Holy cow, what a fantastic set of photos Mark! I never knew some drop tanks were wood.

[res6kgcr]

Gooday all,

If I remember right from a AAHS article from a long time ago Barry Goldwater was involved in this ferry flight. It was a test flight to see if it could be done just in case the U-boots got too active again.

All the best

Tom

[Mark Allen M]

Correct indeed

[michaelharadon]

Interesting to note that most workers are Black.

[airnutz]

Very interesting set. Although I couldn't tell in what picture if any of them, what did they use for sealant?


Then again it may be some kinda oil as it appears to be on the wood, the support stand, the floor... Although the two dudes on the right seem clean?

Dunno much about this, but I recall the paper tanks..which were bonded with resorcinol...were coated with fuel resistant lacquer or somesuch(butyrate or nitrate dope?) The paper tanks were truly one time use and filled just prior to takeoff.

I'd guess these wooden ones are using one of the phenolic processes like Duramold which required higher heat use or a bit lower tech process like Aeromold(a colder method) or a combo of both to reduce production times. I was looking for brushes and glue pots in the photos, but beyond the wetspot under one of the assembly benches(as you noted as well, Steve), I'm missing evidence of those. As for fuel resistant internals? Depends on how much use they were getting out of these tanks. Single use is pretty easy as in the paper tanks. Multi-use...abit harder. Maybe phenolic resin/hardener combination was effective or...what about the stuff the sealed wet fuel tanks with? A slurry of that rolled around in there would do it.

Still, the process is cheaper to produce than what it cost to mine raw materials and smelt aluminum or steel. ...And when you jettison the tanks you don't give the Axis materials you've been working really hard to deny them.

[lucky52]

You have to love those old factory pictures.

[Cvairwerks]

Duramold was originally developed as a wet layup with a pressure and heat curing process. Fairchild was able to develope a dry layup with R.F. curing version that greatly reduced both the manpower and cycle times to build parts. Under the original process, a part that might take several hours of prefitting and marking, then taking apart to apply glue, then hours of curing in heated molds, would now only have to be laid up only once. Plys were fitted to the mold, a sheet of adhesive was laid in and the next ply fitted. When complete, the second half of the mold was applied and clamped and the entire assembly run thru a microwave curing tunnel, with 30kW+ of energy focused on the curing section. Just a couple of minutes later, the part could be removed from the mold and be ready for the next assembly process.

[lucky52]

Were they a one time use only or were they re-used on combat missions or saved for other ferry missions?

[mastaphixa]

Mark, thanks for another fascinating post. Do you have any idea where this factory was located? It is very interesting to see the integrated work force which I think was unusual for the time.