[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]OK, so most military aircraft have outer skin made of thin metal, fixed into place by welds and rivets, correct?[/font]
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]So if a new material comes out that can provide greatly increased protection from weapons for the same weight, how hard would it be to remove the old skin and mount the new armor, so current planes could be upgraded? For the sake of this discussion, we'll assume that you can shape the stuff to maintain more or less the same aerodynamic form.[/font]
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]I ask because i see this sort of thing in roleplaying games and such all the time, but i often wonder how plausible such an upgrade would be. Upgrading firepower with new missiles and cannon projectiles i would imagine is fairly easy if designed to be compatible. But something like the skin/structure of the plane seems like it might be trickier. In the interest of adding just a tad bit more verisimilitude to these games, i figured I’d ask.[/font]
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]could a nation with their own higher tech aircraft industry do it to planes already in their military? If so how easily?[/font]
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]could a lower tech nation (like say Libya) pull it off if they had access to the basic armor material? If so how easily?[/font]
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]could it be applied kinda like Applique to the outside or inside of the existing skin?[/font]
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]would you need to fit some of it to the plane's existing internal structure as well?[/font]
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]what kind of downsides might you see if this is tried, and not done exactly right?[/font]
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]So if a new material comes out that can provide greatly increased protection from weapons for the same weight, how hard would it be to remove the old skin and mount the new armor, so current planes could be upgraded? For the sake of this discussion, we'll assume that you can shape the stuff to maintain more or less the same aerodynamic form.[/font]
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]I ask because i see this sort of thing in roleplaying games and such all the time, but i often wonder how plausible such an upgrade would be. Upgrading firepower with new missiles and cannon projectiles i would imagine is fairly easy if designed to be compatible. But something like the skin/structure of the plane seems like it might be trickier. In the interest of adding just a tad bit more verisimilitude to these games, i figured I’d ask.[/font]
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]could a nation with their own higher tech aircraft industry do it to planes already in their military? If so how easily?[/font]
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]could a lower tech nation (like say Libya) pull it off if they had access to the basic armor material? If so how easily?[/font]
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]could it be applied kinda like Applique to the outside or inside of the existing skin?[/font]
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]would you need to fit some of it to the plane's existing internal structure as well?[/font]
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]what kind of downsides might you see if this is tried, and not done exactly right?[/font]