Little Wing Belly Tank

[mcbirdman]

Rich wanted to post these photos from Ron Herron in case some of you LW Builders are interested in the pursuit of belly tank..... Here they are. The shock strut drawings also requested are in PDF and not actual photos.... so here is belly tank closeups as requested..... jtm Note, I do not know the fuel capacity on this tank but it would be nice to know.... Otherwise we might have to double it...... ;)

[RHerron]

This tank was "thrown together" from old aluminum sheet Merrel had (heating and air leftovers) to add to Andy's gyro for his distance-without-landing record attempt. Merrel had the tank shaped and screwed together at approx. 2" intervals way back in 1998 or so. Andy was planning on these records from the beginning.

I finally added the fittings and the straps and welded it up in a frenzy last February just before Andy's successful distance flight.
I hit the edges with a blue spray-bomb to make it match the rest of the gyro.

Anyway, the tank served its purpose and we have removed it. It has been lugged around in the back of the car and has yellow paint smeared on the bottom so the photos were only sent to show the method of attachment and the general configuration.

The "tabs" that support it go all the way through the tank, top-to-bottom. They are attached to the airframe via 1/2" cushion-clamps.

It worked very well and with the addition of a filler and cap, would make a good main tank. I may draw up plans for it as an addition to the aircraft plans set.

It holds about 14 gallons.

[Brent_Brown]

I was guessing it was 6 gallons but 14 is a better numbers. looks good.

[RHerron]

Thanks Brent. I figured (guessed!) the tank would hold 10 gallons.

When I started pouring fuel into the interior long-range tank (Connected to the belly tank's top fitting), I started with 5 gallons. It quickly disappeared so I added 5 more.
It disappeared too, so I kept pouring. Just before reaching 15 gallons, fuel began running out the vent which let me know it was full.

So, 14 gallons is the approximate capacity.

By the way, this tank is only 24 inches wide. You guys with the 26" wide frames will hold a little more.