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Originally Posted by Steve1968LS2
I bet it largely has to do with internal shapes withing the tank. I have seen "squared" tanks before.
So long at the internal baffleing is correct does it really matter what the outside of the tank looks like?
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This is completely a WAG, but I'm guessing that one of the larger issues might have been getting air out of the oil. We built a number of different shapes for a proposed re-engine program for the Coast Guard HH65-A before I got out. Packaging is of course a huge issue on a small aircraft as it is on a car. We found that the internal baffling had more to do with the ultimate performance of the tank than the exterior shape. It was tougher to build an internal system that worked in the square tanks. I have a sneaking suspicion that manufacturing an internal baffle system that worked in a cylindrical tank is more cost effective than doing the same in a square-ish tank. Eventually we did go with a square tank for packaging reasons, but building the baffles was a huge P.I.T.A.