Just An Airplane Windshield Cracking Mid-Flight
FightMilk22
Published
05/23/2018
in
wow
A KC-130J Crew Memeber Explained about this on Reddit
This is a NESA (Non-ElectroStatic formula A) window failure. There is a film of conductive material in between two panes of glass that's heated by an electric lead at very small amounts of electricity, (>5v DC). This heats the windows to prevent moisture buildup.
When they fail, for whatever reason, they can fail catastrophically like this. It'll look like your window is having it's own lightning storm, and can be followed by an actual window crack on one or both panes of the glass. This can obviously be kind of a sphincter-tightening event, and depending on your altitude, calls for a significant change in your flight profile.
If you're above 10,000 ft AGL (Above Ground Level, sometimes called 'Angels 10'), and your window starts to fail, since you can't determine IF your window will completely fail or not, resulting in a pressurization leak or a rapid decompression, you must reduce your aircraft pressurization below what the window is rated for, and descend below 10k AGL due to the oxygen levels above 10k being so low as to risk hypoxia. Unfortunately, this also brings you into the realm of birds, which adds another, less obvious risk: bird strikes.
When you have functioning NESA, your windows are heated, and thus, are more pliable. If a bird hits a NESA window, it almost functions like a net; the window bends and almost "catches" the bird, arresting the momentum and stopping glass from flying into the flight crews' faces. If a bird hits a non-NESA window, i.e. a cold one, the glass is much more brittle and can shatter on an avian impact.
In the end, it's a typical aviation failure: identify, correct, and adapt correctly, and you'll be fine. Bonus fact: this looks way more badass through night vision goggles.
Found this video on imgur
This is a NESA (Non-ElectroStatic formula A) window failure. There is a film of conductive material in between two panes of glass that's heated by an electric lead at very small amounts of electricity, (>5v DC). This heats the windows to prevent moisture buildup.
When they fail, for whatever reason, they can fail catastrophically like this. It'll look like your window is having it's own lightning storm, and can be followed by an actual window crack on one or both panes of the glass. This can obviously be kind of a sphincter-tightening event, and depending on your altitude, calls for a significant change in your flight profile.
If you're above 10,000 ft AGL (Above Ground Level, sometimes called 'Angels 10'), and your window starts to fail, since you can't determine IF your window will completely fail or not, resulting in a pressurization leak or a rapid decompression, you must reduce your aircraft pressurization below what the window is rated for, and descend below 10k AGL due to the oxygen levels above 10k being so low as to risk hypoxia. Unfortunately, this also brings you into the realm of birds, which adds another, less obvious risk: bird strikes.
When you have functioning NESA, your windows are heated, and thus, are more pliable. If a bird hits a NESA window, it almost functions like a net; the window bends and almost "catches" the bird, arresting the momentum and stopping glass from flying into the flight crews' faces. If a bird hits a non-NESA window, i.e. a cold one, the glass is much more brittle and can shatter on an avian impact.
In the end, it's a typical aviation failure: identify, correct, and adapt correctly, and you'll be fine. Bonus fact: this looks way more badass through night vision goggles.
Found this video on imgur
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