Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

When German engineers were studying aluminum alloy armor, they also came up with chromium-nickel-manganese superhard aluminum alloy.

Many people may be unfamiliar with this, but this aluminum alloy was a key factor in the design success of the World War II Zero fighter. At that time, Japan's Sumitomo Metal Company successfully developed a superhard aluminum alloy called ESD. In order to keep it secret, it was called "50 Lan Metal". This is a chromium-nickel-manganese superhard aluminum alloy. Its strength is even stronger than steel, and its weight is only a fraction of steel, which can greatly reduce the weight of the entire aircraft.

The designers of the Zero fighter blindly pursued flexible maneuverability. They not only used a large amount of this material in non-critical parts, but also used a large amount of magnesium-aluminum alloy in the wings and the main structure of the aircraft. At the same time, in order to further reduce weight, during the design and construction process, not only the aircraft armor of the cockpit, fuel tank, engine and other parts, which are indispensable in the design of European and American fighter jets, was eliminated, but also the use of drilling holes in the aluminum of the main frame was adopted. This is an abnormal way to further reduce the weight of the aircraft.

Through this series of measures, the weight of the Zero aircraft has been reduced to an incredible level, thus achieving excellent flexibility and maneuverability even though the engine performance is not outstanding. The unit thrust-to-weight ratio, turning radius, and climb rate have all been greatly improved. It surpasses American-style fighter jets such as Wildcat and Badwoman.

But the price paid for this is also quite heavy: the entire aircraft structure is fragile, and once it enters the dive state, it requires a lot of manpower to recover. The rotational torque of the engine makes the Zero turn very nimble left, while turning right seems relatively clumsy. At the same time, the most deadly thing is that without the protection of armor, once it is hit in a vital part, such as the aircraft cockpit, the pilot will be killed on the spot. If it hits the engine or fuel tank, due to the flammable characteristics of magnesium in magnesium-aluminum alloy, machinery will soon appear. It breaks down and catches fire, so to speak. So it is called an aerial lighter.

Yannick ordered mass production of this aluminum alloy. Of course, he will not make the same mistake. Chromium-nickel-manganese superhard aluminum alloy can only be used in non-critical parts of the aircraft body, but even so, it can greatly improve the performance of the fighter jet, such as its maneuverability and range.

"Your Highness, this is additional armor developed at your request." Little Alfred, who accompanied him, pointed to a square, thick-looking "brick" and introduced it.

In World War II, the rise of armor-piercing projectiles made tanks face a new enemy. Germany began to install additional armor on its tanks in 1942, adding 5-8 mm armor shields to the sides of the car body and the turret. The addition of ring-shaped hardened armor on the turret further strengthens the defense behind the sides of the turret. At the same time, German armored soldiers were not idle, and they also came up with many "homespun" methods to enhance the protective capabilities of the armored vehicles they used. First, they hung equipment tracks on the tanks, or even captured enemy tracks. Tank tracks made of manganese steel have extremely high hardness, and because of the angular shape of the tracks, it is very easy for enemy armor-piercing projectiles to ricochet, which is equivalent to adding nearly 20 millimeters of armor to the tank. Some tank soldiers removed the spare road wheels from the rear and hung them on the front of the car body and the sides of the turret with steel wires to improve the protection level of the sides and rear.

While the German tank soldiers were hurriedly installing additional armor on their tanks, the American tank soldiers not only mounted tracks on the tanks, but also put sacks filled with yellow sand, buckets, logs, and even some tank soldiers Barbed wire and car tires were hung outside his tank, making it look like a refugee fleeing his homeland. In fact, there is only one purpose for such trouble, which is to make the shaped charge warhead detonate in advance, use the gaps to disperse the jet, and greatly reduce the penetrating power of the shaped charge warhead.

Armor-piercing bullets and armor-breaking bullets are naturally designed to penetrate tank armor. The difference lies in the methods and principles of tearing the armor apart.

Simply put, the principle of armor-piercing bullets is to rely on the kinetic energy of the warhead to violently tear open the armor. The sharper the warhead, the greater the hardness and the faster the speed, the greater the chance of breaking through the tank armor. Its characteristics are fast muzzle velocity and high shooting accuracy.

The technical content of armor-breaking bombs is slightly higher. The principle of armor-breaking is based on the Monroe effect, also known as the shaped energy effect. That is, after the explosive explodes, the detonation products basically move outward along the normal direction of the surface of the explosive under high temperature and pressure. Scattered.

For the U.S. Army and the Soviet Army, in the later stages of the war, the threat posed by German anti-tank rocket launchers to tank troops was far greater than the decreasing number of German tanks. Defense against armor-piercing bullets has become a top priority. However, the above-mentioned principle of the armor-piercing bullet not only gives it the characteristics of convenience and cheapness, but also has a weakness.

If the warhead does not contact the tank armor and explode in advance, the power of the jet will be greatly weakened. The sandbags hung on the outside of American tanks serve as "spacing armor," allowing armor-piercing warheads to detonate in advance. The sand in the sandbag can also disperse and weaken the power of the jet to a certain extent. When it actually comes into contact with the tank's main armor, its penetrating power is greatly reduced.

The steel frame was welded on the T34 of World War II, and then the captured steel mesh or thin steel plates were welded on. Later American Stryker armored vehicles had a standard anti-armor-breaking steel frame, which was vividly called the "birdcage."

What Yannick imitated was the composite armor of the later T-72B. This composite armor design is very interesting and provides very good protection capabilities at a very low cost.

When the T-72B turret is cast, grooves for composite armor are reserved on both sides of the front armor. Layers of expanded armor are installed in the grooves. Each layer of armor is made of a piece of fire-resistant rubber, a steel plate and an aluminum alloy. Composed of flakes. The principle of protection is to allow incoming artillery shells to repeatedly shuttle through layers of different densities to reduce the kinetic energy. At the same time, after the armor-piercing projectile hits this layer of armor, the refractory rubber wrinkles, driving the aluminum alloy flakes to horizontally penetrate the armor-piercing projectile core. cutting.

An easy-to-understand explanation is that the refractory 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 core of the armor-piercing projectile laterally.

This kind of armor has excellent protective capabilities, low material prices, and low manufacturing costs. It is exactly what Germany needs at this time. On the other hand, the Chobham armor and the American depleted uranium armor are examples. The Chobham armor's interlayers include nylon, ceramics, titanium alloys, polymers, etc., and the manufacturing cost is high. The American depleted uranium armor is made of depleted uranium alloy, which is expensive and extremely heavy. high. Not to mention that the technology at this time cannot produce these armors. Even if it can be produced, Yannick will not use such expensive armors on a large scale.

Yannick picked up the piece of additional armor and weighed it. It weighed about 20 kilograms. "The tank body is covered with this kind of armor. It should be quite heavy. Will it affect its mobility?"

Little Alfred said respectfully. "Your Highness, please rest assured that our tank engine has sufficient horsepower and this weight will not affect the tank's maneuverability."