According to one technician at Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Georgia who repairs canopies and windscreens for F-15 fighters, the work is “more an art than a science.” In a report by Gene Rector of The Telegraph, Bridgette Wilderman said rocks, sand, debris, sun, humidity, a mechanic’s belt buckle, and a pilot’s helmet all can damage the canopy and windscreen—and they’re expensive to replace, so the ALC has trained technicians in the “tedious work” of sanding and polishing the acrylic cockpit enclosure. Wilderman noted that the windscreen work requires “an even finer touch” since its a prominent element of the pilot’s heads-up display. She said technicians might work on canopies for two years before “they even think about working windscreens.”
The U.S. sent Air Force F-16s over central Syria in a show of force following the Dec. 13 killing of two U.S. Army Soldiers and one American civilian interpreter by a gunman linked to the Islamic State group.
