I'm guessing Vietnam era Napalm tank. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Someone had a belley tanker at Bonneville built on one of those a few years ago. Probably would have been pretty fast but the windshield was at such an oblique angle he couldn't see out of it due to glare. He wound up a couple of miles off course before he knew it and stopped. They wouldn't let him run it again until he proved he could see. Haven't seen it back.
Art and Dan Vance built up a 75 gal 51 drop tank car for the Air Races about 12 years ago. Had a lawn mower eng with a v belt drive and a pretty good steering set up. Held two intrepid racers and actually won a few heats at the Sat nite tug race off on the ramp after race activities. Now sitting out behind his hanger at Santa Rosa, rotting away. Otta go get it and fix it up for Cralls new Bonnyville get around machine.
It is an external fuel tank, almost assuredly from an F-111. Capacity ~4000 lbs of JP-8. Had to be able to jettison them, hence the fins to prevent them from hitting the aircraft. There is film of one being jettisoned with a fixed pylon from an FB-111A and coming back up and hitting the slab. Not a good idea since the pylon screwed up the aero and the fixed pylons jettisoned funnily. Only the FBs carried fixed pylons. We carried the tanks on pivot pylons and jettisoned them by themselves, if necessary. Fitted only rarely and only two at a time generally, with weapons on the other two pivot pylons. With JP-8, two tanks gave the F-111s ~42,000 lbs of internal (34,000 lbs) and external fuel (8000 lbs). I used them to deploy to Desert Shield/Storm in August 1990. Really big tanks, in case you had not noticed. Taz Terry Phillips
I think this is the video you mention of the F-111 getting hit by its own jettisoned external fuel tank: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKlV9VvHaEY
My first thought was that it was an Aux tank but I couldn't think of any with fins on them so assumed it was a Naplam tank. This one did have fittings and tubing in the pylon attach area though. I should have gotten some close-ups of the nomenclature on the sides. It will be at the Military equipment display at the EAA Fly-in (Arlington) in a couple of weeks. I'll try to get another look.
What's the fun in that though? It just wouldn't have the same effect of confusion on the enemy as one hurtled through the air playing ranchero music...or barreling down on the soccermom van (with 5 kids screaming and her on the cell phone) in your lane.
Truck is a little too high to get under any fighter's wing. No ballistics for it either. Could be easily rolled out the back of a C-130/C-17/C-5, though. An old story goes around about an aircrew who had snuck a Mercedes aboard a transport in Germany and were essentially smuggling it back into the States without paying customs. Word got back that customs would be waiting for them when they landed, so they pushed it out the rear end. Similar story about a B-52 with a Mercedes in the bomb bay when they got the same story (really big bomb bay). So they opened the bomb bay and dropped it. Who knows if they are true? The stories date from the 1960s, when there were no problems with DOT/EPA. Always took off and landed with the same number of external tanks myself. Just like I have the same number of take-offs and landings. A successful AF career. Taz Terry Phillips
Hope it has a little speed. Unlike most race tracks, at Bonneville when you need a pit bike you often need to go 5 or more miles, even the paddock is a few miles long. At 10mph it takes a little time to get where you are going. You should come on up in Sparky. People land out on the salt all the time. One of our buddies buzzed our hauler/camp in his T28 3 or 4 years ago. Could make out the rivets.
There's also the famous (apocryphal) story about the Russian freighter that 'unloaded' a cow and managed to hit a Japanese fishing boat.
We had WMDs way bigger than that tank in the olden days. No longer. We do have bombs way larger than that now. How about a 30,000 lb penetrator? That will get your attention in a pretty deep hidey hole. Taz Terry phillips
make an interesting dive sub.. compartments fore aft with compressed tank and small electric/compressed motor in rear...where is the welder.
I've seen humans inside of those with windows. Very close quarters. Not for me thanks. I am afraid my claustrophobia would get the best of me. I'm not sure I want to go underwater in anything smaller than a boomer anyway.
