Not what you think.
The IJN trained to squeeze the absolute maximum endurance out of its Zeros and in the early days of the Pacific war flew them out to 500 miles. They did this by adopting slow and lean flying, which is risky if planes are bounced when doing 130mph to save fuel. The Zero carried 137 gallons of fuel internally, the P40 130 and Hurricane 125, plus all carried drop tanks of various sizes.
So WI the British and US also trained this technique and used it as a tactic? Presumably the Hurricane with 2 x 45 gal tanks won't go quite as far as the lighter and less powerful Zero, but I wouldn't think flying missions to 300 miles or more is out of the question.
What circumstances could this be used. Crete springs to my mind.
The IJN trained to squeeze the absolute maximum endurance out of its Zeros and in the early days of the Pacific war flew them out to 500 miles. They did this by adopting slow and lean flying, which is risky if planes are bounced when doing 130mph to save fuel. The Zero carried 137 gallons of fuel internally, the P40 130 and Hurricane 125, plus all carried drop tanks of various sizes.
So WI the British and US also trained this technique and used it as a tactic? Presumably the Hurricane with 2 x 45 gal tanks won't go quite as far as the lighter and less powerful Zero, but I wouldn't think flying missions to 300 miles or more is out of the question.
What circumstances could this be used. Crete springs to my mind.