Fuel Tanks

[Garage Dog 65]

I'm amazed some propeller-head aircraft engineer didn't use a jet pump in an automotive situation long ago - aircraft have been using jet pumps in their tanks for over 40 years. Ours serve 2 purposes - 1 is to get all the fuel in the tank and sump areas (we use several due to all the low spots in tanks) - and 2 is to mix all the fuel and water in the tank so the water always stays suspended in the fuel and burn.

So that got me thinking, does anyone use aircraft style tank flapper doors to control fuel slosh in the different chambers of Lat/PT style street fuel tank ?

I've looked at many fuel cells being built for street type cars and they just use partial walls with holes or passages to restrict the fuel during laterals. In aircraft tanks we use a flapper style one way blockoff that closes over the opening in the the dividers/passages.

Example: the inboard tanks (against the fuselage) are where the pumps live. The outboard tanks usually gravity feed through holes in the tank walls into the inboard tank to eliminate extra pumps and tubing. But, the flapper valves close when the aircraft changes attitude to stop fuel migration back to the outboard tanks.

I wonder why we haven't used those aircraft parts to control fuel levels in a 'sump' area of our street tanks to control migration and sump starvation ? Or have I missed it and someone already does use them ??

I can post up an illustration of the aircraft valves if someone wants to see them.

Jim