The „Eurocopter EC135" air rescue helicopter, manufactured by Eurocopter, a division of EADS (Leyde / The Netherlands; www.eads.com), has a panoramic windscreen manufactured in “Plexiglas” PMMA from German speciality chemicals producer Evonik Industries (Essen; www.evonik.com).

The helicopter’s front, side and rear glazing is all made in the transparent, UV protective material. Eurocopter’s Gottfried Hornung says that the material is “twice as light as traditional mineral glass. For safety reasons, glass is unsuitable. If an accident occurs, such as a bird strike, glass breaks into thousands of tiny pieces and impairs visibility. This risk doesn’t exist with “Plexiglas”, only the directly affected area is damaged.”

Evonik said that the sheets are easy to shape and provide pilots with a panoramic view – an important feature in spherical helicopter canopies. The material is produced by casting at the company’s plant in Weiterstadt / Germany, where it is certified as meeting aviation standards for optical quality, thickness tolerance and mechanical properties.

The material is then delivered to helicopter glazing specialists Josef Weiss Plastic (Hofolding / Germany; www.plexiweiss.de) for further processing. The plastic is heated and stretched into the desired form to ensure perfect visibility for the pilot. Around seven sets of the finished glazing are delivered to Eurocopter’s German headquarters in Donauwörth every month for installation in the helicopter.