>Fourth: Don't be tempted to do away with the header tank and rely on a >constant running fuel pump. When it quits, and it will, the engine quits! >Sure, one can install an additional back-up pump, but what happens if the >electrical system fails?- and it will, too!
I really don't buy this theory. Fred also designed the ubiquitous PA-28,
which led the way to low-wing aircraft for Piper. These aircraft,
and Beechcraft, and a host of others, depend upon an engine driven
fuel pump with electric back-up to supply a constant flow of
fuel. We don't see them dropping out of the sky because of multiple
fuel-pump failures. Nor do we see them positioning a few gallons
of gas in the cockpit and calling it a safety feature.
Fact is, the use of such a header tank was common practice at the time.
You'll see them in lots of high- and low-wing aircraft of the the
forties and before. Often, the header was *the* gas tank!
It was a practice which was ended for a number of reasons. Among them,
safety, both on unscheduled meetings with the ground and in case of an
electrical fire in the increasingly complex instrument panels which
were starting to become popular.
Still, it probably looks worse than it is. A few gallons above
your legs isn't really much worse than thirty to ninety just
above your head (and running through tubes which pass through the
cockpit) or just around your waist!
Greg
--
Greg Bullough | AFM Local 1000 AFL/CIO
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | K2GWB
| PP-ASEL
www.eclipse.net/~gwb for Compass Rogues & NY Chantey Sings
<<attachment: winmail.dat>>
