A friend of mine hit a duck right on the (glass-) windshield in a S76. Apart from a bloody mess, no real damage - was probably very well deflected.
On the other hand there was that incident in another company, same guy flew a Gulfstream 2 into something bigger on approach; one half of the bird went through the left engine, the other half came through the radome and penetrated the pressure bulkhead (!) behind the pedals (about $70k price tag on the repair btw.)
I guess my point is, that the question is at what angle the bird hits. But I feel safer behind glass, rather than plastic.
Last edited by Phil77; 16th Feb 2009 at 16:14.
Reason: spelling