View full sizeJimmy Black from PPG Industries' Huntsville aerospace transparencies plant applies the finishing touches to a Gulfstream G650 business jet window made from the company's new advanced transparency material. (Photo Courtesy of PPG Aerospace)PARIS -- PPG Aerospace this week launched the brand name of its aerospace transparency material at the Paris Air Show, displaying a passenger-cabin window made with the unique plastic.
Opticor advanced transparency material by PPG Aerospace is the first new transparent plastic developed in more than 50 years for aerospace applications, according to Anthony Stone, global director for new business development and innovations for transparencies.
“Opticor advanced transparency material meets the aerospace industry’s needs for a lightweight transparent plastic that maintains optical clarity while offering the ability to be formed into complex shapes,” Stone said in a news release. “We expect it to replace stretched acrylic for passenger-cabin windows because it weighs less and has better craze and fire resistance, and it will be used in cockpit windows because it is an excellent substrate for metallic and nonmetallic coatings.”
PPG plans to install equipment for manufacturing Opticor advanced transparency material at its Sylmar, Calif., aerospace transparencies facility and will fabricate windows from it there and at its facilities in Huntsville, Alabama, and Casaletto Vaprio, Italy.
The PPG Aerospace facility in Huntsville is located at 1719 Highway 72 East.
“As both the window fabricator and the manufacturer of the plastic with which the windows are made, we will be better able to control quality as well as supply,” Stone said.
Stone said Opticor advanced transparency material has been selected by Gulfstream for the outboard surface of the passenger-cabin windows in the new G650 business jet.