Me and my brother are at a loss, we understand the basics of how the upside down thing works, but how does the engine get fuel when the tank is turned around, is it a vacoom and how would that work or is the intake from the tank in the back of the it, so the fuel is forced into the engine? Thanks.
In: Engineering
Fighter jets use a pump to keep constant pressure, regardless of orientation. There will be some variation based on the forces felt by the plane, but if the pressure is high enough then those are negligible.
Some jets have a small compartment inside the bottom of their engine feed fuel tanks. This has a check valve in the top to allow fuel to enter but not leave. Inside there is usually a turbine pump of some kind to pump fuel to the engines. When the jet is inverted there is enough fuel to sustain engine operation for a short time, but it will always limit how long a jet can be inverted as this fuel will be limited until the jet levels out again.
Might be easier to explain with gas powered model airplanes, which can do it also….
The fuel intake is via a flexible tube inside the tank that has a weight at its intake end. The weight naturally causes the intake end of the tube to be wherever the bottom of the tank is at that time, based on orientation or aerobatic g forces
IIRC, the fuel tanks have some sort of sponge inside them that keeps fuel from moving away from the ports.
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