Lightweight Hybrid Composite Armor for Navy Aircraft

The versatility of military fixed and rotary wing aircraft has made them extremely important in the current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, their ability to operate at low altitudes makes them particularly vulnerable to small arms fire and shoulder-fired rockets. Because of operational requirements, they cannot afford to sacrifice much weight for crew protection. The currently used aircraft armor are either metal based, or a ceramic with a polymer backing. These materials must also be able to survive the harsh environment endured by carrier-based aircraft. All of the available armoring systems are currently too heavy to satisfy the needs of high-performance military aircraft. Additionally, these material systems only fulfill one of the aircraft's needs: ballistic protection. If the armor could replace structural components of an aircraft, the protection of the aircrew could be drastically increased, and the overall weight of the aircraft could be reduced. In this phase I research, we proposed to develop a family of lightweight foamed composites that have excellent ballistic protection and also the mechanical integrity to replace structural components of an aircraft. The proposed material can withstand the harsh environments of carrier-based aircraft, and will be able to stop the specified threats and the target weight goals. Preliminary results demonstrate our composites' unprecedented multi-hit capacity within a very small area or at the same spot, and the robust mechanical properties necessary to be used as a structural component.