Back in the mid-90's, I had a functional centerline drop tank on my Yellow Aircraft F-18. I simply cut their scale fiberglass tank in two, installed a Dubro cylindrical tank and plumbed it to a bulkhead union-style barb fitting on the top of the fiberglass tank and a flush vent fitting on the bottom then spliced the two halves back together. A similar bulkhead barb fitting (with the barb filed away) was installed on the bottom of the fuselage and a short piece of Tygon was placed between the two fittings. After 3 minutes of flight, I'd release the tank while giving a bit of up elevator. The tank would separate (taking with it the short piece of Tygon) cleanly and the tank fell to the ground surprisingly softly. Typically I'd release the tank on a mid-altitude pass just off the far edge of the runway and pick it up after the flight. The only time the tank was ever damaged was when it happened to fall on a rock and that was just a superficial fibrerglass repair.

I used the tank at several major events and nobody even suggested that it was unsafe. Everyone seemed to think it was pretty cool.

These days there is a better selection of fittings for an even cleaner installation.

No problem, go for functional drop tanks.

Regards,

Jim