Originally Posted by
16024
If it ever got to the stage where fuel would have to be carried for ballast, then you would simply beef up the wing structure at the design stage, surely.
The extra weight would help reduce the bending moment.
Why go to the trouble of designing a lightweight structure, and then adding weight?
some aircraft such as the herc have a ZFW that changes due to airdrop. Once the load is used, the excess fuel can then be burned as recovery fuel. Often on result missions, you have to plan on rtb without completing the drop so then the fuel becomes unusable.