The Spirit of St. Louis: The Man, The Machine-The Legacy
Robert W. Mellette
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The WEIGHT of an aircraft is a number expressed in pounds that represents the sum of the weights for the aircraft, its fuel, the crew, and cargo. This numerical expression is the measure or force of the gravitational attraction between the earth and the aircraft. The WEIGHT of an aircraft influences almost every aspect of performance. A heavily loaded aircraft requires a higher takeoff speed, takes longer to leave the ground, has a shorter flying range, and has a longer landing roll One of the primary concerns in the design of “The Spirit of St. Louis”, was the weight of the fuel Lindbergh would need to cross the Atlantic. Lindbergh’s plane was essentially a flying fuel tank capable of carrying over 450 gallons of fuel. The “Spirit” has three fuel tanks in the wings that total 153 gallons. In addition to the wing tanks there are two tanks located in the fuselage. Both fuselage tanks are located in front of the pilot. The most forward tank has a capacity of 89 gallons and the larger tank behind this tank has a capacity of 209 gallons. Given the weight of a gallon of aviation fuel weighs 6 pounds, challenge the students to compute the total weight off the fuel at takeoff. A drawing of “The Spirit of St. Louis” should be distributed to the class for this exercise. (Refer to appendix)