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Maintenance Modifications

Replacement Glass: Proactive Upgrades

We read in a blog the other day that discarded plastic bags in a landfill are thought to last 500 years before degrading. With that useless bit of trivia in mind, we would be thrilled if an aircraft windshield-also plastic, mind you-would last a tenth as long. Actually, they probably do last that long, its just that you cant see out of them any longer. For that reason, there's a lively business in the aircraft replacement glass market. We call it "glass," by the way, as a term of art. Apart from a few exceptions on larger aircraft with heated windshields, all of the windows in light airplanes are made of plastic, specifically cast acrylic commonly called by the trade name Plexiglas, although not all manufacturers of aircraft windows use Plexiglas. In fact, a material called Spartech (formerly Polycast) seems to be the favored product.

Aviation Consumer Staff
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We r

ead in a blog the other day that discarded plastic bags in a landfill are thought to last 500 years before degrading. With that useless bit of trivia in mind, we would be thrilled if an aircraft windshield-also plastic, mind you-would last a tenth as long. Actually, they probably do last that long, its just that you cant see out of them any longer. For that reason, there’s a lively business in the aircraft replacement glass market. We call it “glass,” by the way, as a term of art. Apart from a few exceptions on larger aircraft with heated windshields, all of the windows

Installing Aircraft Windshields

in light airplanes are made of plastic, specifically cast acrylic commonly called by the trade name Plexiglas, although not all manufacturers of aircraft windows use Plexiglas. In fact, a material called Spartech (formerly Polycast) seems to be the favored product.

Upgrades

Although its practically indestructible, there are good reasons to replace windows in older airplanes, not the least of which is safety. But perhaps not for the safety reason you think. As part of the inevitable march of progress, aftermarket companies have produced improved windshields and side windows that are thicker than the OEM originals. For example, in our Mooney, the factory installed a 3/16-inch (.187 inch) thick windshield and we recently replaced it with 1/4-inch thick version. In other models, even thicker windshields are available. The payoff? Better bird strike protection, although the suppliers of aftermarket windshields don’t make tall claims about this.

“Its common sense that a thicker windshield is stronger, but I couldnt and wouldnt put any numbers on it,” says LP Aeros Jeff Pfister, whom we visited during

Aviation Consumer Staff