I found this to be interesting. don't think our UAV's will have much effect on them.
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Airplane Windshields
- Thread starter Jagerbomb52
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Murray Martz
Premium Pilot
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For Marc Garneau being as smart as he claims to be, he sure is lacking in knowledge about aircraft.
PatR
Premium Pilot
Not one of the many general aviation planes I have flown have had windscreens constructed in that manner. None of them could do 300kts either.
A simple google search and you find answers.
"
Whether it’s for a short, medium or long-haul aircraft, the range of windscreen thickness is the same. It varies between just under an inch to 1.2”. Therefore, a passenger plane windscreen is on average four times thicker than a car windscreen which is 0.23” thick. It is also much stronger.
Cockpit panes have to withstand two forces: cabin pressure and bird strikes. To gauge their strength, a slew of tests are carried out. Sylvain Mourlhon, Saint-Gobain Sully’s marketing director explains: “an aircraft windscreen has to be able to withstand a 4lb-chicken being thrown at it at more than 370 mph.”
To achieve this, windscreens are made from a type of glass designed specifically for aeronautical purposes as well as plastic. A total of six alternating layers of these two materials are required."
"
Whether it’s for a short, medium or long-haul aircraft, the range of windscreen thickness is the same. It varies between just under an inch to 1.2”. Therefore, a passenger plane windscreen is on average four times thicker than a car windscreen which is 0.23” thick. It is also much stronger.
Cockpit panes have to withstand two forces: cabin pressure and bird strikes. To gauge their strength, a slew of tests are carried out. Sylvain Mourlhon, Saint-Gobain Sully’s marketing director explains: “an aircraft windscreen has to be able to withstand a 4lb-chicken being thrown at it at more than 370 mph.”
To achieve this, windscreens are made from a type of glass designed specifically for aeronautical purposes as well as plastic. A total of six alternating layers of these two materials are required."
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South West Research in San Antonio, Texas developed the "Chicken Cannon" for testing F4 Phantom cockpit windshields and the company I worked for built it for them. We were allowed to witness the first round of test against various items but not the windshields. A raw frozen chicken going fast enough will put a hole in almost anything. They used unfrozen chickens for the windshields. Maximum speed it developed was 700 ft per second.
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All of the civilian aircraft I have flown used 1/4" acrylic or Lexan plastic. The most complicated aircraft I flew was a Baron 55. Twin engine, variable pitch props, retractable landing gear, and Turbo Charged. It did cruise at 200 Knots with no problem.
