Well it is getting serious now as Aerocanopy has completed forming of the canopy transparency. This is an RV-8 unit and formed from 1/4"" material (3/16"" is standard) with a Bronze tint. These canopies are usually available with a grey tint but that tint was not available in the 1/4"" material. Of course while the material starts out at 1/4"" it gets somewhat thinned out by the forming process.
Figure 1: The canopy transparency fabrication has been completed and is ready to ship from Aerocanopy. It is difficult to spot but it differs from the stock RV-8 canopy in that the max height extends further aft. This results in a higher angle at the rear edge and more headroom overall. The front 3rd gets removed since it is way too long for a single seat aircraft. Based on where the aft end is actually placed on the fuselage the front would end up near the firewall, it is a two seat canopy after all. In fact the place where the rear seat passenger would have their head is behind my seatback so I sit a little bit further forward.
Figure 2: Here they are, fresh out of the shipping box. These two slide mechanisms will extend to a full 26 inches and can support over 100 lbs at that point. They are actually commercial drawer slides (KV8419 B26) picked up through Amazon for $28. The only option through the conventional suppliers is one through Aircraft Spruce for $695 that only extends 22"". The idea for using a drawer slide came from the Thatcher CX-4 and it is considerably easier than fabricating a slide mechanism from scratch. These slides are ball bearing and very smooth. While in the drawer application they will stay at full extension however I will use the position stops sold by Flyboy Accessories for greater reliability.
