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Many people (myself included) talk about the following. But you know, maybe we really don't understand it. I know its different from airplane to airplane, but its probably similar to one degree or another.
For armor protection for the cockpit seats, just how much weight does the armor weigh, and what type of ballistic protection does it afford [like how much weight would the Zero gain if they used armor seat protection]?
What other parts of an aircraft also gets armor protection? Linkages? Fuel line junctions?
For self sealing fuel tanks, just what exactly is the weight and volume penalty?
How much volume in the fuel tank is devoted to the compounds that made it self sealing?
It doesn't seem that armor plate for the cockpit doesn't add to much weight. Ditto with the self sealing tanks.
I wonder why the Japanese came to different conclusions.
I think the Japanese were perhaps hoping to outrun or out-turn anything heavily-armed enough to shoot them down - a bit like the battlecruiser vs battleship debate at sea. This certainly seemed to work for them in the very earliest days in the war, but they obviously didn't think about what would happen when the enemy sussed thier tactics and developed their own responses...
A further thought - at the time the Zero was designed, most a/c were packing 2-8 rifle calibre MGs. 50s and 20mm cannon were rare, so perhaps the Japanese incorrectly anticpated the kind of punishment the Zero et al. would receive?
...... An AC like the Wildcat, with around 1200 Hp, when armor, self sealing tanks, folding wings and extra guns were added had it's performance substantially degraded. .....
The empty weight of the F4F3 was 5426 pounds, the F4F4 was 5778.9 pounds. The armor in the F4F4 was 7.5 pounds more than the F4F3. I would think that the SS tanks would not weigh more than the unprotected when they were full because of the gasoline displaced. The 352 pounds difference must have been mostly the folding wings and the two extra MGs. The early F4F3 lacked armor which weighed 155 pounds, so the startling difference in performance can be chalked up to a difference in weight of around 500 pounds.