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>The ultimate in infra-red protection would be to vapor deposit a layer of
>gold a few molecules thick on the canopy (I don't know whether the inside
>or outside would work better).

In general, that low-E coating would be specified to go on the inside of
the canopy, that way it would reflect the IR back through the canopy itself
and be somewhat protected from the elements.  The downside would be that
the IR would actually be making two trips through the canopy material which
would raise its temperature slightly.  This is part of the theory behind
how these coatings work in the window business.

I checked with one of the MSVD equipment manufacturers this morning
thinking that they might know of someone who could do this job on a
canopy-shaped part, but no joy.  The machinery used in the glass industry
is designed to accommodate pieces of flat glass, so the material can pass
between the various vacuum chambers through a series of valves,
unfortunately the valves are nothing more than long sealable slits that a
sheet of flat glass could pass through.

We need to find out who does the coatings for those faceshields and for
canopies on fighter aircraft, as their equipment is already designed to
operate on materials that aren't flat.  The coatings can be layered on to
provide different characteristics... ie, the gold layer would address the
IR, and layers of other harder materials on top of it could protect it.  It
is feasible that a relatively durable coating could be applied, the biggest
question is at what cost.

   <Marv>

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