Fuel measuring and control systems

Fuel measuring and control systems have become progressively more sophisticated as aircraft performance has been extended both in the number of operating regimes and in operational capability. The fuel tank arrangements for the conventional aircraft types of the pre‐supersonic era, both piston and jet‐engined, allowed fairly straight‐forward fuel gauging and management. The tank dispositions were usually in line from left to right across the span of the wing. The advent of the swept wing aircraft introduced the complexities of fore and aft fuel balance in order to limit excursions of the CG about aft of the centre of lift. At the same time the operating economics of both military and civil aircraft, with massive fuel rate demand, required the development of fuel management systems capable of measuring and indicating fuel consumption and quantities to higher orders of accuracy.