n the context of this post I wonder whether the wingman's fuel used correlated in any way with the mass of throttle excursions required to maintain position 3 planes removed from the smooth leader.
- formating a/c always burn more fuel than the lead but not, I think, 25x as much (not that much fuel on board!) so I suspect there is no direct correlation between throttle movement and fuel burn. Constantly accelerating and decelerating the rotating mass will always be less efficient than steady state running.
Move out from lead to 'outside' wing and throttle movement becomes more extreme. As an example, in the line abreast barrel roll as an 'outsider' the throttle goes from full to idle/idle to full at least once to maintain position although the engine of course does not have time to fully respond to the demands. Many of the formation changes also call for extreme throttle movements and 'slams' were frequent during rejoins and other movements and very much part of the airtest requirement for the individual airfame/engine combo. The synchro pair's consumption was occasionally 'very interesting'.
