Armor on planes

[Sir Nurtle]

Does it work, because from my experience its basically useless

[Eftwyrd]

armour is relative, carrying armour capable of stopping even 12.7mm MG AP rounds adds significant weight. In reality best you can hope for is reduce chance of lethal injuries to the pilot but armouring large flight control surfaces does not make for high performance which tends to have a lot more influence on whether your aircraft gets shot in the first place.

[Tom]

it does save me sometimes, but you shouldn't count on it

[Illusionyary]

You can't compare armour of a plane to armour of a tank. Armour is very heavy so anything fitted to a plane has to be thin sheets to protect against small arms fire otherwise the plane becomes too heavy and looses too much performance.

The IL-2s are probably the most heavily armoured planes in-game and they can take an absolute beating so yes it does work.

Keep in mind War Thunder's damage model isn't the most complex neither, combine that with mouse aim and planes go down a lot easier than they historically did.

[Sir Nurtle]

Originally posted by Illusionyary:

You can't compare armour of a plane to armour of a tank. Armour is very heavy so anything fitted to a plane has to be thin sheets to protect against small arms fire otherwise the plane becomes too heavy and looses too much performance.

The IL-2s are probably the most heavily armoured planes in-game and they can take an absolute beating so yes it does work.

Keep in mind War Thunder's damage model isn't the most complex neither, combine that with mouse aim and planes go down a lot easier than they historically did.

I know, its just sometimes I get gajined and a 7.62 round goes through my angled 50mm of armored glass as though it was paper

[Illusionyary]

Originally posted by Sir Nurtle:

Originally posted by Illusionyary:

You can't compare armour of a plane to armour of a tank. Armour is very heavy so anything fitted to a plane has to be thin sheets to protect against small arms fire otherwise the plane becomes too heavy and looses too much performance.

The IL-2s are probably the most heavily armoured planes in-game and they can take an absolute beating so yes it does work.

Keep in mind War Thunder's damage model isn't the most complex neither, combine that with mouse aim and planes go down a lot easier than they historically did.

I know, its just sometimes I get gajined and a 7.62 round goes through my angled 50mm of armored glass as though it was paper

I think that's more the rounds going inbetween gaps, I've been killed a bunch of times in my Duck from rounds going inbetween the plates.

[Chaoslink]

I think the most useful aspect is when you have things like 20mm HE hitting your plane. The wings and other surfaces get ripped apart, but key components like engines or crew are protected from the shrapnel created by these rounds. This protects the armored components from taking damage and keeping the aircraft flying after taking hits from such ammo types. I play some aircraft that have armor around the engines on occasion and the number of times my surfaces will be orange/red/black while the engine is still pristine is pretty significant.

Point is, I don’t think most armor is meant to stop bullets themselves at all, instead it blocks shrapnel from HE rounds instead just like flak jackets were designed for. Direct hits from AP or other solid bullets isn’t what they’re for.

[Toblm]

Originally posted by Sir Nurtle:

Does it work?

Sure. When the armored bit is hit with something that doesnt pen it.

Is it going to turn your plane into a heavy tank that can bounce shots? No.

[DeciNinja]

It works. Once I was flying an Il-2 (admittedly a very extreme case of aircraft armor) and tanked what must have been hundreds of 7.7mm rounds from a spitfire behind me until he ran out of ammo.

However, on most planes the back is the only side with halfway-decent armor coverage, and any AP round of 12.7mm and above will go through most plates. All it really gives you is a chance to resist small rounds.

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by DeciNinja:

It works. Once I was flying an Il-2 (admittedly a very extreme case of aircraft armor) and tanked what must have been hundreds of 7.7mm rounds from a spitfire behind me until he ran out of ammo.

However, on most planes the back is the only side with halfway-decent armor coverage, and any AP round of 12.7mm and above will go through most plates. All it really gives you is a chance to resist small rounds.

Or more specifically, resistance against shrapnel. When a 20mm HE hits you, or possibly bigger HE, your vital components like pilots or engines can be safer from shrapnel caused by these HE rounds.

[DeciNinja]

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

Or more specifically, resistance against shrapnel. When a 20mm HE hits you, or possibly bigger HE, your vital components like pilots or engines can be safer from shrapnel caused by these HE rounds.

You're wrong. 20mm HE is very effective against even the most heavily-armored planes in the game because it can break the wings or tail off, and is very effective at setting fire to exposed fuel tanks. Hits from behind (where the armor actually protects) explode on the tail or wings; in the former case they're too far away to kill the pilot and in the latter very few planes have side armor to protect him anyway.

[ulzgoroth]

Originally posted by DeciNinja:

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

Or more specifically, resistance against shrapnel. When a 20mm HE hits you, or possibly bigger HE, your vital components like pilots or engines can be safer from shrapnel caused by these HE rounds.

You're wrong. 20mm HE is very effective against even the most heavily-armored planes in the game because it can break the wings or tail off, and is very effective at setting fire to exposed fuel tanks. Hits from behind (where the armor actually protects) explode on the tail or wings; in the former case they're too far away to kill the pilot and in the latter very few planes have side armor to protect him anyway.

Which in no way makes Chaoslink wrong.

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by ulzgoroth:

Originally posted by DeciNinja:

You're wrong. 20mm HE is very effective against even the most heavily-armored planes in the game because it can break the wings or tail off, and is very effective at setting fire to exposed fuel tanks. Hits from behind (where the armor actually protects) explode on the tail or wings; in the former case they're too far away to kill the pilot and in the latter very few planes have side armor to protect him anyway.

Which in no way makes Chaoslink wrong.

Right? The armor is still capable of protecting the things they're designed to protect, I didn't imply those rounds wouldn't rip apart other things.

I don't know about you, but I shoot planes more often from different angles than from behind.

I'd rather have my plane busted up but with working engines and pilot than otherwise.

[General Winter]

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

Originally posted by DeciNinja:

It works. Once I was flying an Il-2 (admittedly a very extreme case of aircraft armor) and tanked what must have been hundreds of 7.7mm rounds from a spitfire behind me until he ran out of ammo.

However, on most planes the back is the only side with halfway-decent armor coverage, and any AP round of 12.7mm and above will go through most plates. All it really gives you is a chance to resist small rounds.

Or more specifically, resistance against shrapnel. When a 20mm HE hits you, or possibly bigger HE, your vital components like pilots or engines can be safer from shrapnel caused by these HE rounds.

you say that but whatever my 50mm HE hits in the air dies instantly even though it has like 4mm penetration

[Eftwyrd]

Originally posted by General Winter:

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

Or more specifically, resistance against shrapnel. When a 20mm HE hits you, or possibly bigger HE, your vital components like pilots or engines can be safer from shrapnel caused by these HE rounds.

you say that but whatever my 50mm HE hits in the air dies instantly even though it has like 4mm penetration

that 4mm stat tells us the shell itself only pens 4mm but not much about the shrapnel it generates, reality is its probably still not enough to get through armour unless it suffers spalling which is when the shockwave creates shrapnel from the armour itself which is what HESH rounds in tanks are designed to do.

Regardless an aircraft isnt going to remain flying without elevators, rudder, ailerons, hydraulics, wings, tail etc and those are a lot too much surface area to armour and remain airworthy. Even if hypothetically the frame itself doesn't break the skin of the flight surfaces can be made from anything from canvas to wood to various thin lightweight metals