Chapter 532 Armor (2)
German engineers also developed a chromium-nickel-manganese super-hard aluminum alloy while studying aluminum alloy armor.
Many people may not be familiar with this. This aluminum alloy was the key factor in the successful design of the Zero fighter in World War II. At that time, Sumitomo Metal Corporation in Japan successfully developed a super-hard aluminum alloy called ESD. In order to keep it secret, it was called "50 Lan Metal", which is a chromium-nickel-manganese super-hard aluminum alloy. Its strength is even harder than steel, and its weight is only a fraction of that of steel, which can greatly reduce the weight of the entire aircraft.
Zero fighter designers blindly pursued flexible controllability. Not only did they use this material in large quantities in non-critical parts, but they also used magnesium-aluminum alloy in large quantities on the wings and the main structure of the aircraft. At the same time, in order to achieve the goal of further weight reduction, in the process of design and construction, not only the aircraft armor in the cockpit, fuel tank, engine and other parts that are indispensable in the design of European and American fighters was cancelled, but even the abnormal method of drilling holes in the main frame aluminum was adopted to further reduce the weight of the aircraft.
Through this series of measures, the weight of the Zero aircraft was reduced to an incredible level, thus achieving excellent flexibility and maneuverability while the engine performance was not outstanding. The unit thrust-to-weight ratio, turning radius, and climb rate all greatly exceeded those of American Wildcat, Hellcat, and other fighters.
However, the price paid for this was also quite heavy: the entire aircraft structure was fragile, and once it entered a dive state, it would take a considerable amount of manpower to correct it. The engine's torque made the Zero very flexible in turning left, but relatively clumsy in turning right. At the same time, the most fatal thing was that due to the lack of armor protection, once it was hit in a vital part, such as the cockpit, the pilot would be killed on the spot. If it hit the engine or fuel tank, due to the flammable nature of magnesium in magnesium-aluminum alloy, mechanical failures would soon occur, and it would catch fire and burn. It can be said that it would catch fire at any time. So it is truly worthy of being called an aerial lighter.
Yannick ordered the mass production of this aluminum alloy. Of course, he would not make the same mistake. The chromium-nickel-manganese super-hard aluminum alloy could only be used in non-critical parts of the fuselage, but even so, it could greatly improve the performance of the fighter, such as maneuverability and range.
"Your Highness, this is the additional armor developed according to your requirements." The accompanying little Alfred pointed to a square, thick-looking "brick" and introduced it.
In World War II, the rise of armor-piercing shells made tanks face a new enemy. In 1942, Germany began to install additional armor for its own tanks, adding 5-8 mm armor plates on the sides of the body and the turret. The ring-shaped hardened armor added to the turret further strengthened the defense behind the turret. At the same time, the German armored soldiers were not idle, and they also came up with many "earth" methods to enhance the protection capabilities of the armored vehicles they used. First, they hung equipment tracks on the tanks, even captured enemy tracks. The tank tracks made of manganese steel have extremely high hardness, and because the track shape is multi-angular, it is very easy for the enemy's armor-piercing shells to ricochet, which is equivalent to adding nearly 20 mm of armor to the tank. Some tank soldiers also removed the spare road wheels from the rear and used steel wires to hang them on the front of the body and the side of the turret to improve the protection level of the side and rear.
While German tank soldiers were hastily installing additional armor on their tanks, American tank soldiers, in addition to mounting tracks on their tanks, also hung sacks filled with sand, buckets, logs, and even barbed wire and car tires on the outside of their tanks, dressing up the tanks like refugees fleeing their homes. In fact, there is only one purpose for all this tossing, which is to make the shaped charge warhead detonate in advance, use the gap to disperse the jet, and greatly reduce the penetration of the shaped charge warhead.
Armor-piercing shells and armor-piercing shells are naturally designed to penetrate tank armor. The difference lies in the different methods and principles of tearing off the armor.
The principle of armor-piercing shells is simply to rely on the kinetic energy of the warhead to forcibly tear off the armor. The sharper the warhead, the greater the hardness, the faster the speed, and the greater the chance of breaking the tank armor. Its characteristics are fast initial velocity and high shooting accuracy.
The technical content of armor-piercing shells is slightly higher. The principle of armor-piercing shells applies the Monroe effect, also known as the shaped energy effect, that is, after the explosion of explosives, the detonation products basically fly outward along the normal direction of the explosive surface under high temperature and high pressure.
For the US and Soviet armies, in the later stages of the war, the threat posed by the German anti-tank rocket launchers to tank units was far greater than the decreasing number of German tanks. Defense against armor-piercing shells became a top priority. However, the above principle of armor-piercing shells not only gives them the characteristics of convenience and cheapness, but also has a weakness.
If the warhead does not explode in advance without contacting the tank armor, the power of the jet will be greatly weakened. The sandbags hung outside the US tanks played the role of "spaced armor", allowing the armor-piercing warhead to explode in advance. The sand in the sandbags can also disperse and weaken the power of the jet to a certain extent. When it really contacts the main armor of the tank, the penetration power has been greatly reduced.
Weld the steel frame on the T34 in World War II, and then weld the captured wire mesh or thin steel plate on it. The later US Stryker armored vehicles have a standard anti-armor steel frame, which is vividly called a "bird cage".
Yannick imitated the composite armor of the later T-72B. This composite armor design is very interesting and has very good protection capabilities at a very low cost.
When casting the turret of the T-72B, grooves for placing composite armor will be reserved on both sides of the front armor. Layers of expanded armor are installed in the grooves. Each layer of armor consists of a piece of fire-resistant rubber, a steel plate and an aluminum alloy sheet. The protection principle is to allow the incoming shells to repeatedly shuttle between the interlayers of different densities to achieve the purpose of weakening kinetic energy. At the same time, after the armor-piercing projectile hits this layer of armor, the fire-resistant rubber will wrinkle, driving the aluminum alloy sheet to cut the armor-piercing projectile core horizontally.
To interpret it in a simple way, the fire-resistant rubber is like a tablecloth, and the aluminum alloy sheet is like a knife placed on the tablecloth. Once the tablecloth is pulled and wrinkled, the knife on the tablecloth will naturally move with the tablecloth to achieve the purpose of cutting the armor-piercing projectile core horizontally.
This kind of armor has excellent protection capabilities, and the material price is low, and the manufacturing cost is not high, which is exactly what Germany needs at this time. On the other hand, Chobham armor and the US depleted uranium armor are examples. The interlayer of Chobham armor includes nylon, ceramics, titanium alloy, polymer, etc., and the manufacturing cost is high; the US depleted uranium armor is made of depleted uranium alloy, which is expensive and extremely heavy. Not to mention that the current technology cannot produce these armors, even if it can be produced, Yannick will not adopt such expensive armor on a large scale.
Yannick picked up the additional armor and weighed it. It was about 20 pounds. "It should be quite heavy to hang this kind of armor on the tank body. Will it affect the mobility?"
Little Alfred said respectfully. "Please rest assured, Your Highness, our tank engine has sufficient horsepower, and this weight will not affect the tank's mobility."