B-17 Range

[05564]

I know this may sound like a stupid question to all you experts on here, but I would like to know when they post the range an airplane can travel, is that round trip, or how far it can fly before it has to refuel ?

[terveurn]

I know this may sound like a stupid question to all you experts on here, but I would like to know when they post the range an airplane can travel, is that round trip, or how far it can fly before it has to refuel ?

The answer is yes.... as well as it depends

You have combat radius which is range to target and back. You have ferry range; one way with spare tanks.

Range as defined by manufactures is generally the full distance. usually starting with a brand new ship, full tanks an empty of all excess weight.

Then you can have range with ferry tanks, range with different loading (bomb load, crew, guns, altitude, etc) - again all done by the manufacture using a new ship.

In combat however, you can lose 20% of the range due to how war out these ships are, how warn out the engines are, how green the pilot is (a green / new combat pilot tends to use a lot more gasoline)

So again, the answer is depends.

[05564]

Thanks, I never really thought about all those other possibilities. So range can be more then one answer. Who says you're never too old, to learn something new.