Think about the "failure mode" of the aircraft that won World War II, the Supermarine Spitfire. There was a fuel tank mounted between the engine and cockpit so

Think about the "failure mode" of the aircraft that won World War II, the Supermarine Spitfire. There was a fuel tank mounted between the engine and cockpit so if it took enough of a hit to puncture right through (not hard, in practice) the failure mode was that the cockpit was now full of a 350mph jet of burning petrol. Still, it did the job.