kbrockman
A catastrophic front wind shield failure could/would likely be immediately fatal for the pilot sitting behind it, I would imagine.
Ummmm - no. As the BA BAC111 incident shows, a windscreen failure has the windscreen blowing out. In that incident the Captain's windscreen failed, positive cabin pressure blew the windscreen out and sucked the Captain half out of the aircraft. Fortunately his feet snagged on the instrument coming which prevented him being completely sucked out of the aircraft. Fantastic flying and CRM from the F/O (well before CRM was even invented) had the aircraft safely on the ground with NO loss of life. The Captain survived.