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[WxTech]

I've been looking at FuelTank.class again, as part of getting a fuller understanding of the way fuel mass is handled.

I had previously added the generation of a dust cloud effect when a dropped tank impacts land (formerly, only a water splash effect was created for water hits.) It occurs to me that it might be not too difficult to have fuel tanks erupt in fire on impact if sufficient fuel is still inside. I realize that because fuel quantity is not transferred over the network this would not be replicated reliably in track playback. Even so, randomness would probably be wise to implement in any event. Due to the aforementioned non replicable bahaviour, it also might be wise to incur no damage to any struck or nearby objects. Or just a small amount of damage could be incurred for every drop, whether ignited or not, for the sake of uniformity of treatment.

Naturally, this leads to the contemplation of tanks hit by gunfire igniting while still attached, although at this juncture I think that would be harder for a chimp like me to implement.

Any thoughts?

[WxTech]

I just added a wee bit of code to FuelTank.class to invoke a fuel fireball effect that I had already created some time ago for use by smaller fuel barrels/tanks and other destroyed stuff like fuel trucks. In this first stab at it, there's a 20% chance of ignition for land impacts and when there is at least 25% of the fuel quantity remaining in the tank. No damage to objects is incurred (yet.)

This is all open for refinement, of course. Such as having something more resembling a 'napalm' fire stream, perhaps?

This screenie is a crop of the relevant part (not full screen.) The yellow text is the output of the fuel quantity in the internal tanks, in kg and as a percentage of the max amount possible. I did this for obtaining a fuller understanding of the way fuel is handled.

[genXgamer]

Naturally, this leads to the contemplation of tanks hit by gunfire igniting while still attached.

This already happens doesn't it?

My screenshot "Rocket Assisted".

[Mick]

... well, not sure at all that in real life, a not empty droptank would catch fire upon impact on the ground, except if there are sparks because the tank fell on rocks for ex ...

Anyway, in no case would the pilot see anything, simply because his plane would be far from the impact zone when the tank hits the ground ...

[Dimlee]

I can't speculate about the aircraft fuel tank drops.
Just to mention that in tanker shipping the most dangerous condition of the cargo tank (that large compartment of the ship containing liquid cargo such as crude oil, gasoline, etc.) is when the tank is not full but partially empty or empty and not ventilated yet and is full of vapour. The vapour is explosive while the liquid is not. It's hard to put a full cargo tank of gasoline on fire. But vapours in an empty tank can detonate from the spark or sudden temperature surges caused by various reasons. Simply put, dropping a torch into a full tank is safer than dropping a wrench into an empty (not ventilated/not cleaned) tank.

Edit: replaced "combustible" with "explosive".

[Orge Schwab]

... well, not sure at all that in real life, a not empty droptank would catch fire upon impact on the ground, except if there are sparks because the tank fell on rocks for ex ...

Hard to imagine that this would happen with compressed paper tanks, as commonly fitted to Hurricanes and P-51s.

[Draken]

A few days ago , on the official server, I spawned on a La-5 carrying two droptanks .
But soon , ennemy AI fighters strafed me and I lost on droptank while on the ground .

I was wondering why this droptank did not explode .

But , as Dimlee said , there must probably be some vapor in the droptank to make it able to explode .

[WxTech]

The handling of drop tanks in Bomb.class is to simply remove them from the game world (via method destroy()  ) instantly upon contacting the ground/water. At lower vertical velocities it might be nice to have them skip across the surface like bombs can. But a lower threshold on both vertical velocity and total speed would be advisable, given their less robust constitution than for bomb casings. 

But then it would lead to the desire to assign to fuel tanks the potential to remain as a game object. For instance, instead of a strafed plane's drop tank being knocked off while on the ground immediately disappearing upon contact with the ground, it would remain sitting there.

[Dimlee]

Hard to imagine that this would happen with compressed paper tanks, as commonly fitted to Hurricanes and P-51s.

Were there some metal parts in those tanks? They could probably cause the sparks when hitting the ground, under certain conditions.

[Dimlee]

But then it would lead to the desire to assign to fuel tanks the potential to remain as a game object. For instance, instead of a strafed plane's drop tank being knocked off while on the ground immediately disappearing upon contact with the ground, it would remain sitting there.

... and being reused later by another player with the "refuel" command. 

[Orge Schwab]

Hard to imagine that this would happen with compressed paper tanks, as commonly fitted to Hurricanes and P-51s.

Were there some metal parts in those tanks? They could probably cause the sparks when hitting the ground, under certain conditions.

Hmm... well, filler nozzle, vent pipe, feed pipe, drain pipe, electric pump, internal baffle plates (to prevent the fuel sloshing around and affecting flight). Externally, a few sway brace fittings and perhaps a couple of reinforcement bands around the middle. Not much more, as the whole point was to reduce the use of metal. I wouldn't claim ignition on impact was impossible, just unlikely IMO.

Tanks dropped over friendly territory were commonly collected for re-use. I seem to recall that Mr Honda started his car company by draining discarded drop tanks found after hostilities had ceased and marketing the petrol in post-war Japan - which seems to suggest that many non-empty tanks survived the drop.

[Dimlee]

Meanwhile, in Vietnam... 
https://thehochiminhtrail.com/fuel-tanks-raining-down/