764. Selection of Armor for Advanced Aircraft Systems

Paper

Abstract

Light weight armor systems currently available fall into two general categories, those consisting of dual property steel, and those consisting of a hard-faced ceramic on a ductile backing such as either aluminum or fiberglass reinforced resin. In general, the weight these various armor systems varied inversely with their cost, and thus the selection of an armor system fo a given aircraft must be based on a weigh-verse-cost tradeoff. This paper introduces the concept of using a preselected ‘premium value’ and a simple mathematical relationship to select armor for advanced aircraft systems.
‘Premium value’ is defined as the value assigned by the aircraft designer to the saving of a pound of empty weight on an aircraft. Once this premium value can be established, it is possible to use a two-dimensional plot (representing the mathematical relationship) of premium value versus the cost of armor to select the appropriate armor system. This permits an objective selection of armor systems on a cost-effective basis.