Stikpusher wrote:I wonder if the fuel tank wear was due to proximity to the nose wheel, and stuff thrown up off of wet runways. Since the photos show the tanks, but no other equal such abrasion wear on the aircraft.
Good guesses! Another thing to consider is the life of the drop tank when it was not mounted on the aircraft. How was it stored? How was it moved to the aircraft? Was it filled while mounted? If so, maybe these things were dragged and thrown around while empty. My personal guess as a possible factor is that the quality of the black paint was inferior to the paint used on the aircraft.Floki wrote:I'm guessing like other aircraft the drop tanks on the Me262 was well droppable. Could the wear seen here be due to multiple drops and retrievals. I'm sure them falling back down to earth say hitting trees on the way could cause more wear than what in flight would do alone.