Description of Data Collected
All
the sources above present weight data on the various components that
make up the "Basic Empty Weight", "Useful Load", "Basic Mission Gross
Weight", "Useful Load", "Additional Load", "Max Useful Load", and
"Maximum Gross Weight". However, there do appear to be some
potential small differences between sources, appears to be due to
differences in how some items were viewed during the war.
Specifically, for weight summaries on planes from early in
the
warit appears that Radios and Comms Equipment were frequently treated
as pertof the "Useful Load" of a plane whereas later in the war these
items typically appear as part of the "Basic Empty Weight" of an
airplane. Similarly for some planes items such as "Engine
Water
Injection Sytems", "Turbochargers", and "Anti-Icing Systems" may be
identified separately whereas for other aircraft they may be noted (or
in some cases assumed) to be included in other weight groups.
As
such, care should be taken when reviewing the data.
Three final
caveats on the current data collected include the fact that in
Reference [2] that author appears to have incorporated that weight of
any arresting gear (for carrier based naval aircraft) into an over
arching "Structural Weight Group" whereas many of the other sources
appear to include those weights into an overarching "Systems and
Equipment Weight Group".
Second, for some aircraft listed
in more than one reference there are often small variations between the
weights for each weight group reported in the different sources.
In most cases the variations ppear to be relatviely small
(within
a few pounds) though in a few cases the discrepancies appear to be much
higher. In general, the smalldiscrepancies in weights are not
really unexpected as eventhough two different sources may indicate that
the weights are representative of the same notional make and model of a
plane (such as the P-40D) there still may exist variations in the
design of a plane type throughout its production run where small
updates were incorporated into how the planes were produced, such that
a late production P-40D may include some items or changes that were not
present in early production P-40Ds, for example.
And
finally, for some type planes, such as the relatively uniquely
configured P-38, there may have been some uncertainty in how to
correctly categorize some weigth components. For the P-38J in
particular some of the weights presented in References [1] and [2]
appear to vary greatly between the two sources. A
close
look at the data in Ref [2] for this aircraft lists an entry for the
"Booms" that run aft from the wing mounted engines to support the tail.
However a listing for "Booms" does not appear to be included
in
the weights listed in Ref [1] which may suggest that theweights for
that part of the airplane as reported in Ref [1] may have included
those weights in some other categoriy/categories, such as potentially
either the Body/Fuselage, Wing, or Tail Group weights.
The
"General Weight Format" used in this webpage, based on the information
provided in References [1] to [5] is discussed more fully here.
Tabular summaries of the collected weight data are provided here.
Tabular summaries of the collected dimensional data for the aircraft
included on this website is located here.
Caveats
- It
currently is unclear what all is included in the "Engine Section"
weight group. It appears that this includes the the engine
mounts
for allaircraft as well as cowling and cooling flaps for radial
engines. However for a few aircraft in the lists below such as the
XP-63A a very low value of 4lb is given, while for the P-63A-10 and
P-63C no value is given, leading to the suspicion that the weights of
the enine mount for those aircraft may be included elsewhere in the
weight estimate (such as in the "Fuselage" weight or "Engine
Accessories" weight groups.
- In the data
currently collected it appears that "Fuselage" weightis equal to the
sum
of the "Body" and "Engine Section" weight groups. However for
the
weight listed in Ref [1] for several of the Brewster F2A and B339
variant aircraftit appears that the "Landing Gear'weight group has been
included with the "Body" weight group. As such I have included a row
for "Body + LG" in the tables below, that I intend to populate for the
other aircraft types soon, to allow for a comparison between the
reported weights for those Brewster Aircraft and the other aircraft in
the tables. Similarly, for the XF2A-1 listing from Ref [1] it
appears that the wiht listed for the "Body" group also includes the
"Enine Section" weight in addition to the "Landing Gear" weight, so a
line has also been added to the table for "Body + Engine Section + LG"
as well.
Notes:
This website
has been developed with a number of low cost or free programs including
Hot Metal Pro, KompoZer, Microsoft Designer and Da Button Factory.com
Rev 2-18-25
