Fuel system for Canard aircraft

A gravity feed fuel system for a high wing Canard aircraft including:

• an elongated fuselage,
• a high, main wing mounted to the top of said fuselage and having right and left wing sections projecting outwardly thereof to opposite sides of said fuselage,
• said fuel system comprising:
• a plurality of fore and aft, spaced strake fuel tanks mounted within the top of said fuselage forward of said main wing at a common level,
• a wing tank within each main wing section at said common level, a common, central collector tank mounted between said wing tanks, in alignment with said fuselage tanks and at said common level, a fuel sump tank below said collector tank, means communicating said sump tank with the bottom of said collector tank to receive fuel directly from the collector tank,
• main fuel supply line opening to the sump tank for feeding fuel to at least one aircraft engine mounted to said aircraft,
• a primary gravity feed system comprising individual horizontal fuel lines leading from the bottom of each strake and wing tank to the central common fuel collector tank, each individual fuel line terminating at said fuel collector tank in a low pressure drop, normally open flapper check valve for preventing reverse flow from the collector tank back to the strake and wing tanks,
• a secondary gravity feed system comprising horizontal interconnect fuel lines connected to and opening freely at opposite ends into the bottoms of adjacent strake tanks,
• said individual fuel lines and said interconnect fuel lines being oversized to meet maximum fuel demands of the engine with some margin of safety, and a fuel transfer system comprising:
• at least one boost pump in the main fuel supply line between said sump tank and said engine,
• at least one jet pump in the strake tank most remote from said collector tank and a jet pump in an outboard portion of each wing tank,
• a fuel return line from said engine for returning excess fuel at boost pump pressure,
• means for connecting said fuel return line to said jet pump for causing the excess fuel at boost pump pressure to act as the motive flow for the jet pumps, inlets to the jet pumps for allowing fuel within said most remote strake tank and each wing tank to enter the jet pumps for aspiration thereby,
• discharge lines from each jet pump to the collector tank, and wherein the jet pumps have a capacity such that each jet pump supplies fuel to the collector tank at a high proportion of the engine take-off fuel demand, whereby the collector is supplied with fuel by the fuel transfer system which is considerably in excess of the maximum engine demand, and wherein said fuel transfer system further comprises overflow return lines routed from the top of the common, central collector tank back to each fuel tank containing a jet pump, and wherein said overflow return lines terminate at each tank containing a jet pump in low pressure drop, normally open flapper check valve for preventing fuel cross flow between tanks.