Aircraft Fuel Systems

AIAA Team 1 (Shelley Biagi & Curtis Black) A/C Design Class Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Business and Commercial Aviation Magazine

An aircraft's fuel system has a more profound effect on aircraft performance than any other airframe system. Without fuel, the mission inevitably comes to an abrupt stop and, unless the flight crew is very, very lucky, the ensuing forced landing will cause severe or catastrophic aircraft damage. ~ Fred George, 6/20/06
http://www.avweek.com/avnow/news/channel_bca_story.jsp?id=news/fuel0606.xml

Fuel Types

Civilian

Military

Jet A Jet A-1 Jet B

JP-4 JP-5 JP-8

Typical Fuel Tanks

Integral Rigid Removable Bladder Rule of Thumb for max. fuel volume: 85% for wing tanks and 92% for fuselage tanks, measured to the external skin surface (exception: bladder tanks, 77% and 83%, respectively) External

Components
Main Tanks Header Tank (separate from main tanks, holds enough fuel for engines to run during complicated maneuvers) Gravity Feed (small aircraft only) Electric/Engine-driven Fuel Pumps

Fuel distributed around center of gravity

Fuel Dumping Systems

Needed to meet landing weight limits of landing gear or runway length System of fuel pumps and valves Usually ejected from wingtips Sometimes from aft-most point of fuselage Usually designed to allow the plane to go from max take-off weight to max landing weight in 15 minutes or less.

777 Fuel Dumping http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/planes/q0245b.shtml

http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Evolution_of_Technology/refueling/Tech22G5.htm

In-Flight Refueling

Original motivation: endurance records Currently used only in the military sector Two main types:

Boom and Receptacle Probe and Drogue

http://www.answers.com/topic/aerial-refueling

References

Ask A Scientist http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/eng99/eng99417.htm Aerospaceweb.org http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/planes/q0245b.shtml Refueling http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Evolution_of_Technology /refueling/Tech22G5.htm PBS http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/concorde/anat-nf.html Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_tank Raymer Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach 4th ed. By Daniel Raymer George, Fred Business and Commercial Aviation Magazine, June 2006 issue. http://www.avweek.com/avnow/news/channel_bca_story.jsp?id= news/fuel0606.xml

Any Questions?