[Land-speed] Drilling Plexiglass

Rich Fox v4gr at rcn.com
Sat Apr 18 06:58:06 MDT 2009


Airplanes I worked on tended to be more of the Heavy transport variety. 
Don't know about the little guys. I do know that people tend to call any 
clear plastic sheet "Plexiglas".
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kirkwood" <saltfever at comcast.net>
To: "land-speed" <land-speed at autox.team.net>
Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2009 2:57 AM
Subject: [Land-speed] Drilling Plexiglass


> 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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