Titan A321 loses windows

[Tango and Cash]

Not the first time, as other posters have noted, and it happens to spacecraft as well. The Frontiers of Flight Museum at Dallas Love Field (KDAL) has the Apollo 7 command module on display. One of the side windows has a melted spot with bubbles trapped inside the 'glass'. A plaque nearby notes that this window survived the heat of re-entry, but was damaged by lights used in filming a documentary several years later.

While the windows didn't get anywhere near the heating of the aft end, the fact that this window survived an orbital re-entry but was no match for film lights--well, those lights get d**m hot!

[tdracer]

Originally Posted by blue up

Cripes! If it did that to clear windows then what has it done to the plastic fuselage? How do you detect heat damage through Carbon fuselage sections? I assume crack detection isn't the solution.

My understanding is - so long as it doesn't get hot enough to start outgassing the resin that holds the carbon fiber together - carbon composite construction is relatively immune to heat (strong ultra-violet light is a different matter).
It should be relatively easy to calculate the sort of temperatures the clear windows were exposed to and determine if that's a potential hazard to the composite fuselage.

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by blue up

Cripes! If it did that to clear windows then what has it done to the plastic fuselage?

Plastic fuselage?