How the USSR stole the panoramic windows on the roof of a bus from the West, but never understood why: the story of an "invention"

Soviet engineers and designers stole Western inventions, and this has long been no secret. Some of the "borrowings" could be called successful, but some completely reveal the weakness of the Soviet approach, such as the story of panoramic windows in buses.

We are talking about the PAZ 672 model. It had rounded windows that went from the sides to the roof, creating panoramic glazing. OBOZ.UA explains how this unique solution for the Soviet automotive industry came about and what was wrong with it.

For the first time, they tried to install such windows on the PAZ 652 model, and then they were used on the newer 672. It is noteworthy that the KAVZ hooded bus, which was similar in design and purpose, did not have such windows on the roof. Although this part of the vehicle had a similar design.

The peculiarity of these roof windows was that they were tinted. To prevent the sun from heating the interior through them, they were mostly covered with blue film. This film also kept the fragments out if such windows were broken for some reason. Although they were made of tempered glass.

Another model that had panoramic windows was the LAZ 695. They were made for use on tourist routes. Therefore, the presence of panoramic windows was justified. It was quite pleasant to admire the scenery through such windows. However, they were not installed in Lviv buses for very long. After the model was updated, the feature was removed.

However, it is precisely the purpose that explains the appearance of panoramic windows on a few Soviet buses. The USSR authorities were indeed constantly looking to the West in the hope of adopting something advanced from there and passing it off as their development. This technique was spied on by officials on the Shkoda and Ikarus tourist buses. Their passengers were supposed to enjoy the scenery.

But it quickly became clear that such windows did not offer much of an advantage – usually a large side window is enough to look in all directions. Therefore, the Western automotive industry returned to the conventional design of buses. The USSR followed suit and stopped using this technique as well. Especially given that buses with panoramic windows were used there more for regular transportation than for tourism.

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