Originally Posted by
fallmonk
In the article it says of the non stealth fuel tank issue affects both the F22 and the F35,
could a common fuel tank be found to spread the R&D and production costs?
With the planned F35 sales it would at least drive down that cost.
or am I oversimplifing it?
The shapes would have to specifically tailored to each aircraft to maintain their stealthy characteristics (highly non-trivial).
There could be some cost saving using common technologies for the mechanics and materials of the tanks, but as noted the tanks themselves would have to customized.
My understanding is that - during WW II - the allies used a paper machete type material to make drop tanks for aircraft such as the P-51 Mustang (cheap and didn't use high-demand materials).
Wouldn't something like that have low radar reflectivity?