Approximated Fuel Usage and Range

[RAZBAM_ELMO]

Hello all, hope your flights have been fruitful and glorious for the fatherland. All kidding aside, i was sitting bored at work today and figured i would do some fun maths in my spare time to see if i could figure out some ranges and fuel consumption figures on the Dora given information i could find. As far as i can tell, the front tank ( or Vorn) is fed by the rear tank ( Hinten ) which in turn can be fed by a underbelly drop tank ( Tropfen ). Now heres the tricky bit to managing the fuel system. The rear tank is best to be used first obliviously but note that if you have a drop tank, the rear tank will feed fuel first until you reach approx. 240L then a valve will open and your drop tank will then feed the rear tank. Sneaky sneaky Mr. Tank

 

Now Given that the Vorn holds approx. 232L of fuel, Hinten holds approx. 292L, that gives us an approx. 524L of fuel onboard the aircraft which doesn't include the 300L the tropfen holds. Given that, approximate ranges varied with onboard fuel from 850-835km. I used the lowest figure of 835km/ 519mi/ 450nm. Now if we take into effect the average range of 835 km and the total onboard amount of 524L, we can assume an approximate millage rate of 62.75L/ 100km- 1.594km/L or 3.75mpg-26.68 mi/ 100mi. Now taking into affect the drop tank used by the fw carries approx. 300L we can reverse the math and find that used properly an approximate combat range of the FW190 D-9 could be 1,313.2km/ 815.9mi/ 709nm given this information.

 

im going to fly tonight and test this out for myself but im wondering if anyone has information to back this up. Note these are under approximated optimal engine performance, settings, alttitudes and wind conditions.

 

Happy Flying, Oberfeldwebel Elmo

[NeilWillis]

Fuel consumption would be subject to altitude, prevailing wind conditions and any number of other factors.

 

I would be more interested in litres per hour, and anticipated flight duration in hours rather than kilometres covered. After all, regardless of wind direction, the flight duration would be constant, but the ground covered would vary enormously.

 

I'd also be interested to know what altitude was most economical, and that would need testing over a number of flights.

[MiloMorai]

At what height are you flying?

 

The range for the A-8 with 640ltr and no drop tank was 615km (0.3km, 1.20ata) to 1035km (7km, 1.05ata) depending on the height flown.

 

Are you including warm up, taxi out, take off power, climb?

 

For the A-8 Fw, had a 12.5% reserve.

[RAZBAM_ELMO]

Yeah this was more an average so maybe between 3000m and 12000m or 39000ft. I would assume normal take off and warm up procceedures. I would also guess that being up at 12 000m would bring about the best range and fuel economy.

[RAZBAM_ELMO]

Also dont forget when they allow the MW-50 tank to be converted to carry fuel, theres an extra 110 Litres of fuel availlible bringing the total to 934 litres between on board and external.

[Mobius_cz]

A while back i tried some fuel consumption test

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=128415

 

I am not sure if the most efficient way is to fly at 12 000 m because crusing rpm are set to 2200 - 2400. From 2800-2900 engine starts using rich fuel mixture (i think i read this in manual). My guess is 2300 rpm and 5,5 - 6 km and maximum idle cruising duration for real plane is 2,6 hour without drop tank. Have fun :D

[saburo_cz]

I would also guess that being up at 12 000m would bring about the best range and fuel economy.

 

Probably it not, you will consume to much fuel during climb. And it will not be balanced by lower fuel consuption at that hight altitude.

 

for example, P-47 had better range at 10kft than at 25kft