New Materials in Aircraft Windshields

The Boeing 747 and Lockheed L-1011 airliners, as well as several aircraft still on the drawing board, have large, curved, plastic windshields that would not have been possible as recently as five years ago. This paper discusses several recently developed transparent materials which collectively were an important factor in making these new windshield concepts practical for both current and projected aircraft. Included are plastic materials, thin, chemically strengthened glass, protective coatings, heat-resistant interlayers, and an electrically conductive coating with improved light transmission and reduced reflectance. The windshield designs of recent and projected aircraft are used to illustrate how windshield designers are making use of these new materials.