The
fuselage tank is perhaps the biggest factor in surviving a crash in an
Ercoupe. The engine gets pushed into
the tank rupturing it and the rest is history.
There
is one modification that I know of to deal with this problem and that is to
take out the tank. What usually follows
is fitting larger wing tanks and an electric fuel pump. It is expensive and
you loose the advantage
of gravity fuel feed.
Has
anyone considered doing something about the center tank? How about a fuel
bladder? I once saw a demonstration where they
dropped a full 80 gallon bladder from 1000 ft and it just bounced. Of course,
there are lots of problems to
overcome.
There
would need to be a hose connection on the top and the bottom. Or, maybe we
could just have one on the
bottom and use the bladder as an “accumulator”. Pluming it to stay full until
the wings go dry. The check valve
preventing it from draining back to the wings.
To get started, fill the wings and use the fuel pump to “charge” the
bladder. If the last flight didn’t use
fuel from the bladder, nothing would be required except refueling the wings.
Some kind of sensor would tell you the badder is deflating and to think about
landing.
Getting
a bladder made in the shape of the existing tank would make it special and
expensive, but I have seen ones that resembled footballs that might just fit,
with some reduced capacity.
Okay
everyone, shoot this down or be creative.
Whatever, I would like to feel more comfortable in my plane.
Sincerely,
Chris
Restoring
99674
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