PPG Industries' aerospace transparencies group is designing windshields for the KC-390 military transport aircraft that will be the largest glass windshields PPG has produced and the industry's first to have a compound bent shape affording ballistics resistance and night-vision capabilities.

PPG is under contract with Embraer Defense and Security to design and manufacture production and spare windshields, side cockpit windows and fuselage windows for the KC-390 aircraft.

According to Connie Poulsen, PPG global director for military transparencies, the windshields will be about 11 square feet to provide pilots with expansive viewing. The No. 2 and No. 3 side cockpit windows also will be glass and meet requirements for ballistics resistance and night-vision compatibility.

“PPG has a history of delivering complex technical solutions on time to Embraer, and that history was instrumental in Embraer's decision-making process for the KC-390,” Poulsen said. “Our technical design capabilities and glass-bending expertise are critical to achieving the vision Embraer has for the KC-390 aircraft.”

PPG is designing and will produce the heated glass windshields and side cockpit windows at its Huntsville, Alabama, facility, while the fuselage windows are being designed of stretched acrylic and will be manufactured at its Sylmar, California, location. PPG has delivered first articles.

Embraer expects the aircraft to enter service in 2016.