[Land-speed] Drilling Plexiglass

Kirkwood saltfever at comcast.net
Sat Apr 18 03:57:36 MDT 2009


Plexiglas was the material invented during the war and was universally used
to replace glass in all bomber windows and fighters. Lexan was patented in
1955. Plexiglas is what is used is all general aviation aircraft today. That
was the point of the video on the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Assoc) site.
Drilling Plexiglas windshields is one of the most daunting tasks a
homebuilder faces when constructing aircraft. I have been trying to research
the properties of both Lexan and Plexiglas to determine why the preference
in aviation. The weight is similar. So far, all I have been able to
determine is that Plexiglas has excellent optical characteristics as well as
excellent weather and UV resistance. Since aircraft sit, unprotected in full
sun, that is probably one reason Plexiglas is the material of choice. Lexan,
even treated with a UV inhibitor, suffers from UV degradation and scratches
more easily. Even though Lexan is generally 2 to 3x more expensive, that
should not be a determent in aviation. All of the aviation websites use
Plexiglas for replacement windshields. Here is a link to aircraft spruce
that sells many cleaners for Plexiglas windshields.
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/menus/cs/plexiglascleaners.html 

I agree the properties of Lexan make it far superior for LSR and the
material that must be used.  

-Elon  (tube arrived on 4/14 but no rule book).

 

From: "Rich Fox" <v4gr at rcn.com>

I don't know about "The old days" but going back 45 years every airplane I
worked on had Lexan windows. 


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