Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-76.254.58.172-20140916024723/@comment-10993019-20140916053009

I believe that the extra research that would've gone towards the aircraft you played with (as would normally happen with stocked fuel) gets dispersed randomly among other research items. I think you still research the same number of items (about 3) as you would've without the research I just believe you get more progress on them.

That's what I think it is anyway, not for certain though.