Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
Reading minds is a loser-think game. I suspect the design was derived from first principles along the lines of an arthropod shell. The skin is 3mm thick. The inner structure is conventionally thin. This puts mass where it is most efficient.
The unpainted shell with 'metal glass' windows will be essentially immortal.
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Shells are never flat or faceted, but curved to spread impact loads. The Citroen 2CV and Ford Trimotor used corrugated steel to get sufficient rigidity from thin sheets. Steel, being dense, is very inefficient as a flat panel unless it is used as faces on a sandwich with a suitable core. A plywood panel would be equally hammer-resistant at much lower weight.