4.13 development update discussion and feedback

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Igo kyu

Was that armour glass new with that model of Hurricane, or did they have it in the BoB, and the Spitfires too, as I have always believed?

While the earliest production versions of the Spitfire and Hurricane were built without armor glass, and there were some troubles getting it retrofitted when the war started, by summer of 1940 all RAF fighters had armor glass windscreens.

I'm not sure of the exact thickness, but it was between 3-4" (75-100 mm) and mounted at an angle both to conform with the cockpit shape and to further improve bullet resistance.

While WW2-era armor glass wasn't nearly as effective as modern varieties, in sufficient thicknesses it could stop a rifle caliber bullet, as shown here:

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/j...n/Scan0195.jpg

Against anything heavier, however, armor glass was pretty well useless even at extreme ranges.

FWIW, the Luftwaffe also had and used armor glass. This picture gives a sense of the thickness:

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/i...kmlqUnR_RNzchg

According to Capt. Eric Brown, late war German armor glass wasn't as well manufactured and had a slight tint to it.