Aircraft glazing units, such as those used to protect an aircraft's lighting systems, are exposed to particulate matter and water droplets during flight. These erode the outer surface of the glazing panel and thus detrimentally affect its transparency. The invention provides an aircraft glazing unit comprising a body of transparent material and at least one subsurface thickness indicator at a predetermined depth within the material. The provision of a subsurface thickness indicator allows for the unit to be re-polished to remove erosion, whilst providing a visual indicator to ground crew of the remaining thickness of material in the unit. In this way, the service lifetime of the glazing unit can be extended.
Aircraft glazing unit
2019-02-06
Patent
Electronic Resource
English