re-skinning an aircraft

[mithril]

[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]OK, so most military aircraft have outer skin made of thin metal, fixed into place by welds and rivets, correct?[/font]


[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]So if a new material comes out that can provide greatly increased protection from weapons for the same weight, how hard would it be to remove the old skin and mount the new armor, so current planes could be upgraded? For the sake of this discussion, we'll assume that you can shape the stuff to maintain more or less the same aerodynamic form.[/font]


[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]I ask because i see this sort of thing in roleplaying games and such all the time, but i often wonder how plausible such an upgrade would be. Upgrading firepower with new missiles and cannon projectiles i would imagine is fairly easy if designed to be compatible. But something like the skin/structure of the plane seems like it might be trickier. In the interest of adding just a tad bit more verisimilitude to these games, i figured I’d ask.[/font]


[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]could a nation with their own higher tech aircraft industry do it to planes already in their military? If so how easily?[/font]
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]could a lower tech nation (like say Libya) pull it off if they had access to the basic armor material? If so how easily?[/font]


[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]could it be applied kinda like Applique to the outside or inside of the existing skin?[/font]
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]would you need to fit some of it to the plane's existing internal structure as well?[/font]
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]what kind of downsides might you see if this is tried, and not done exactly right?[/font]

 

[m1lkman]

Re-skinning as such happens all the time, but it's generally done in order to repair damage or upgrading if the original skin is performing unsatisfactorily (the F-5 comes to mind as an example) . Having said that, I know of some instances where complete panels on Airbusses have been retrofitted with Glare (aluminum sandwich developed by tuDelft), but this only lead to widespread application on new build aircraft.


For role playing purposes I'd definitely go beyond plausible in the 'myth busters' sense of the word. In the real world replacing the entire skin of an aircraft is probably not worth it. You'd easily end up with a crooked aircraft because the stressed skin is an inherent part of an aircraft structural strength.


Applying a 'clever' coat on the skin is a different matter though. Just think about the radar absorbent material that contributes to a large extent to a stealth aircrafts ability. A role playing scenario could be the application of 'shark skin' paint that significantly reduces drag. Add in the degenerating effect of temperature, humidity and amount of flights and you've got a nice element to play with.

 

[Byeman]

KC-135 had its wings re-skinned

http://www.boeing.com/boeing/history/boeing/kc135.page

 

[mithril]

so possible with the right engineering knowledge, but not always practical?

could a 2nd world nation like Libya or Egypt do it though? (in these games the 'upgraded' craft are usually being created by the less well off nations to try and counter the advanced aircraft of the 1st world)

what kind of problems would a crooked aircraft have if the skin stress issue isn't properly accounted for in the re-skin work? any other issues that might pop up other than that?