Fuel tanks on Safirs that were ferried to Ethiopia
Fuel tanks on Safirs that were ferried to Ethiopia
I am looking for some information on the extra fuel tank that was installed on that SAAB Safir that did the long distance ferry flight from Sweden to Ethiopia, specifically I am looking for the fuel quantity on the tank. Any information would be appreciated. Thanks!
-- Renato Piereck


Re: Fuel tanks on Safirs that were ferried to Ethiopia
Might be a bit late, but nevertheless...
If I remember right, those planes were a batch of 12 aircrafts that were quite special.
Saab had already switched to manufacturing of the C-model and already had a batch of wings, but still B-fuselages.
Practical as they are, they simply fitted a valve in the fuel-piping. Fuel to the engines was fed from the wingtanks, which were filled in turn by the tank in the fuselage by means of gravity.
Thus, they had an endurance of 7 to 8 hours...
And I could imagine they just made intermediate landings, as even with that flight-time, you won't make it non-stop.
Again, this is from memory, could very well be I'm mistaken. There was a batch of special-Safir's, and they went to a customer on the african continent, but I'm not sure whether they were the ones sold to ehtiopia or not...
Cheers,
Daniel
If I remember right, those planes were a batch of 12 aircrafts that were quite special.
Saab had already switched to manufacturing of the C-model and already had a batch of wings, but still B-fuselages.
Practical as they are, they simply fitted a valve in the fuel-piping. Fuel to the engines was fed from the wingtanks, which were filled in turn by the tank in the fuselage by means of gravity.
Thus, they had an endurance of 7 to 8 hours...
And I could imagine they just made intermediate landings, as even with that flight-time, you won't make it non-stop.
Again, this is from memory, could very well be I'm mistaken. There was a batch of special-Safir's, and they went to a customer on the african continent, but I'm not sure whether they were the ones sold to ehtiopia or not...
Cheers,
Daniel