Stealth aircraft Earlier stealth aircraft (such as the F-117 and B-2) lack afterburners, because the hot exhaust would increase their infrared footprint, and flying faster than the speed of sound would produce an obvious sonic boom, as well as surface heating of the aircraft skin which also increases the infrared footprint. As a result, their performance in air combat maneuvering required in a dogfight would never match that of a dedicated fighter aircraft. This was unimportant in the case of these two aircraft since both were designed to be bombers. More recent design techniques allow for stealthy designs such as the F-22
Center of gravity of an aircraft be able to be lowered, resulting in possible loss of control, or the rotor blades striking the tail boom. In fixed-wing aircraft, lateral balance is often much less critical than fore-aft balance, simply because most mass in the aircraft is located very close to its center. An exception is fuel, which may be loaded into the wings, but since fuel loads are usually symmetrical about the axis of the aircraft, lateral balance is not usually affected. The lateral center of gravity may become important if the fuel is not loaded evenly into tanks on both sides of the aircraft, or