Comments by "Steve Valley" (@stevevalley7835) on "Operation Crossroads - Billy Mitchell's Dream Test?" video.

  1.  @vikkimcdonough6153  I read, somewhere along the line, that, after the loss of the Lex at Coral Sea, the USN learned to inert the fuel delivery system, On warning of an attack, the gas mains to the flight deck were drained, and the mains and pump rooms were filled with CO2, Wasp was lost because she had no warning of the sub's attack, and was running air ops, so the gas mains were full of gas. As for filling the storage tanks with inert gas, I don't know if that was/is done on carriers. Sticks in my mind that a certain concentration of O2 in the fuel tank would be needed for combustion. A tank with nothing but fuel vapor in the top of the tank might not burn. Aircraft, and cars, have been running around for well over a century, without elaborate inert gas systems for the tanks, without exploding in a fireball, unless the tank is ruptured.
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