B-17 Bomber's Self Sealing Fuel Tanks Explained

The intent of this video is to provide an introduction to the WWII B-17 Bomber's Self Sealing Fuel Tanks. Topics include:
1. B-17 bomber's self sealing tank material and thickness.
2. Self sealing tank wall nitrile rubber
3. Bomber Self sealing tank healing sequence

A free high quality .pdf copy of this page can be viewed and/or downloaded here:

[rickmoreno]

Thank you for breaking this down, I always wondered how self sealing tanks worked!

[bobbiisbell]

My grandfather worked for Goodyear and made the molds for the rubber bladder for fuel tanks.

[dothedewinme]

Thank you for explaining this. I had heard about these forever but never quite could find out how it worked

[chriselhardt]

The tanks may be collapsible but to get the three tanks in and out of a B-17 wing, three panels on the underside of each wing are unbolted and lowered to the ground. The tanks are strapped to the panels, which are approx 4 ga (0.250”). We had to remove the tanks in order to inspect the spars.

[johnnicatra]

Big B-17 fan here.Love your site.My late father flew 35 missions with the 381 BGH.Out of Ridgewell, England.My son and I visited a couple of years ago, still use it to fly sailplanes out of there.My Dad was radio operator and gunner on the B-17 Georgia Rebel. O.V.Jones was their pilot.First American Bomber to crash in neutral Sweden July 1943.Most likely saved his life as the 381st took the most downed planes at the schweinfoot raid.Made it back to England to compleat 35 total.

[SynapticTransmission]

Every YouTube clip you post is high quality and absolutely fascinating. This is no different.
Thank you for all of your work here.

[Mephistopholies]

Good show!
Any footage of affective use of aerial AP incendiary rounds?

[richardschaffer]

“Exploding Fuel Tanks” Richard L Dunn May 2011 ISBN 978-1-4507-7305-8 has an extensive description of self sealing tanks in the Pacific.

[geodeaholicm]

Excellent content well & clearly explained.

[richardbuchs]

Would have liked some more info about How these tanks were Mantained. Maybe a video on that. Should be very interesting, to understand the storage thru tank repair. Either at base or in field!!
Thank you for these interesting and somewhat a Teaser. 🐸

[francisbusa]

I understand that this contributed to a certain amount of additional weight to the aircraft...

[bf]

If a rigid tank has a mixture of fuel and air (oxygen) inside, it is a bomb waiting to explode if a spark is introduced, like a penetrating incendiary round. Did the B-17 tanks exclude oxygen somehow? Either by being collapse or by having the fuel void filled by something like nitrogen?

[stuckpstuckp]

I’m curious how the B-29 ballistic computer for its gunsworked, given that it was analog.

[elizabethmiles]

What if the World War 1 Airplanes had Self Sealing Fuel Tanks Would've Been Like

[dibsky]

Does it have maximum diameter where if exceeded the self-sealing property will be ineffective? If so how big?