Also it's nice how different ships in the same role react different to canopy damage, so the canopy structure can actually be a selling point in a ship.
For example, I've been sticking to fighters-only, so far (I do have an Asp Explorer, but it's completely unequipped, waiting until I have some spare cash to upgrade it). My progression was Napkin (a.k.a Sidewinder) -> Eagle -> Viper -> Vulture. I'm still unsure what will be my next ship; maybe a Fer de Lance, maybe a Python, maybe an upcoming ship, who knows.
I never had a breach with my flying napkin, but maybe that's because 1) I upgraded it quite early for the Eagle and 2) it's so small that actually landing a canopy shot may be completely random.
Then the Eagle. It has a nice canopy, with lots of visibility and a neat interior, but a breach will leave you without most of your targeting area. Quite dangerous to be out there with a canopy breach.
The Viper is a funny one. It has a smaller canopy, and it's harder to aim at it, but still it beaches VERY easily. Also, while it doesn't has a lot of crossbars, the canopy is very small and has little lateral visibility while having almost none in the vertical direction (and that seems to be a common theme on Faulcon deLacy ships). And because of the small amount of reinforcements and crossbars, a breach will rip you of most of HUD. A breach in a Viper basically means you have to navigate by instruments until you can repair the ship.
The Vulture improves on the Eagle formula (which makes sense, since both are made by Core Dynamics). The canopy has a lot more crossbars and reinforcements, and more visible area (it even has a small window under the instrument panel). The downside is that your canopy is a front-arc "shoot-here-please" transparent bubble, so going head-on unshielded against an Anaconda can practically guarantee a canopy breach. But on the good side? The reinforcements and extra crossbars are there for a reason: the only part that actually shatters is the small trapezoid in the center, while the rest of the glass stays cracked but still there. So you basically lose your crosshair, but you can still navigate without much problem (pitching or yawing just a little bit will put your target in the visible field again, since the hole is very small). Also, since the hole is in the very center and pretty much contained inside the cage structure, you can use it as a makeshift crosshair and fight your way out. Really, I had a canopy breach but could still fight normally (though users of gimballed or projectile weapons will lose any ways of predicting the behavior of your weapons).
I'm quite curious to see how the Imperial Clipper behaves in those situations, because I'll probably get it as my future exploration vessel.
If you get more it'll damage all the way across, then smash out at which time you go onto life support (usually about 5 minutes of unless you've upgraded it) and you lose your HUD (since it's projected onto the canopy).
