I’ve read online on how airliners store their fuel in the wings of the plane, and especially how it’s not in a tank, but its just inside the wings.
How exactly does this work? Does this mean the wings have to be completely air tight? If the inside of the wings are mostly structural elements, how do they deliver the fuel while making sure that there aren’t areas in the wing structure where the fuel gets trapped?
In: Engineering
On airliners, the wing is a large hollow structure. This means that is can be sealed so that it can contain fuel. It is divided into a few large sections to create several tanks.
The top and bottom surfaces are a few millimeters thick – there is fuel on the inner surface.
The wing box isn’t fully air tight for two reasons: as the plane climbs and descends, the outside air pressure changes. A sealed container would explode if air wasn’t able to be rebalanced. The other reason is that fuel needs to enter (during refueling) and leave (as it’s burnt by the engines), so an equal amount of air needs to enter/leave to balance the pressures.
A series of pipes is fitted inside the box to allow air to flow in and out. These pipes go to a hole at the wing tip.
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