MakerPlane Open Source LSA Looking for Guidance on Windscreen Design

[JNicol]

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick note to ask for a little bit of help with attachment of wind shield to frame on the LSA design we are in the middle of.....

Here is a render of the design. The doors are still being designed, so you can ignore the side windows that you can see directly below the wing. The wind shield includes the front clear panel, the two side angled panels and the top curved piece that conforms to the airfoil shape above the main spar in the rendering.



I spoke to a couple of folks at Oshkosh and there were a couple of opinions about how the wind shield could be formed and attached. The reason we went with flat panels is ease of construction. The curved panel should be easy enough to bend on a form with a heat gun I think (I will try this soon). I have the EAA Sportplane Construction Techniques handbook as well as Ron Wanttaja's book Kitplane Construction and have delved deep into the windshield and canopy chapters.

A couple of questions for the experienced builders out there!

• Now one person has indicated that it would be quite easy to form the front and two side panels as one piece and not to worry about building with the three flat panels. Might even be able to do the top curved panel incorporated and do the whole thing as one. Anyone have thoughts on that? I have no experience with forming wind shields.... Could we put filler material between the structural beams and form it on the cockpit itself? Anyone have any references to point to? Another idea we are looking at is having a one-piece front panel that is flat and then curves over the top surface. You can see the structure in the 3D model below without the cross bar that you see in the above rendering. (Note that the spars have been hidden in the image below.)

• If we go with flat panels butting up against each other, what should I use to cover the seams/joints? My initial thoughts include an angled aluminium strip with silicon sealant. BTW, the structure will be composite. Perhaps we form a composite strip to cover the seams?

We have some update info on where we are at on the design in our forums here: http://makerplane.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=84&p=428#p428

Thanks in advance for your help on this.

John