Having been to the Atl IPMS show, I noticed something peculiar. ALL of the a/c that were built had super high polished canopies and windscreens. I know people love Future floor wax, but on a war bird which is weathered? Plexiglass is not as crisp and clear as real glass and I would think that a brilliant canopy would give ones aircraft away in bright sunlight. The effect is beautiful, but for fear of getting tossed out of here, is it really accurate or is the effect people want?
Riceball
Any body who flys including the military wants to start the mission with the windshield and canopy. Reason? One of those specks you are ignoring could very easily be something or someone which will do you a great deal of harm. Post mission they can be very dirty but they will be cleaned as soon as possible.
qmiester is right and in fact cleaning the canopy/windscreen is part of the crew chiefs pre-flight prep of the aircraft. There are nicks and scraches in them but not the size you would be able to see at 1/72 or 1/48 scale, 1/32 maybe
Ditto. I’ve seen the maintenance guys polish the hell out of Harrier canopies & windscreens, even though the rest of the plane was well-weathered. Made it look like it had a new canopy.
Tim, my dad used to tell me he’d watch the line crews work for hours on the glass on his B-24 to get it cleaned for the next mission. The other comments in this thread are on target r/t specks suddenly turning into enemy fighters. They had to have pristine canopies and glass. The rest of the a/c may look like hell, but the canopies and turrets were spotless.
The crewchiefs, when they weren’t mopping up hydraulic fluid, were busy polishing the windscreens of the CH-53E’s when I was in…but you never know with the ‘new corps’!!! LOL[:P]
Take it from a former crewchief , that canopy and windscreen has to be sparkling clean ,pre-flight, or you’ll have one PO’d stick actuator. On the F15’s I crewed if a nick or scratch were big enough that in 1/32 scale it could be seen , we were getting a new “glass”.
Thanks for the info guys.
Riceball
Hey, there, riceballtrp,
I have LOTS of relatives in little ol’ Watkinsville, GA. Do you know any of the Nortons (Sally, Clinton, Tony, Marie), or any of the Freemans? My mom grew up down there, and I get back down there occasionally to visit.