What happens when an Aluminumed skinned aircraft is struck by lightning?
Lightning traveling on the exterior skin of an aircraft has the potential to induce transients into wires or equipment beneath the skin. These transients are called lightning indirect effects. The aircraft skin around the fuel tanks must be thick enough to withstand a burn through.
What is the best protection from lightning strikes?
surge protectors
Lightning-induced surges can spike to several hundred volts. You can help protect your devices from lightning strikes by using surge protectors. However, in severe storms, the best protection is to unplug your appliances and disconnect phone and cable lines.
Would a lightning strike distort an aircraft sheet metal?
Lightning can also damage composite airplane structures if protection finish is not applied, properly designed, or adequate. This damage is often in the form of burnt paint, damaged fiber, and composite layer removal (see fig. 7). Composite structures are less conductive than metal, causing higher voltages.
How does lightning protection work on an airplane?
Conductive metals are used to bond lights to the wingtips, and the bonding protects the lights by grounding them to the rest of the airplane. Skin around fuel tanks in the wings must be thick enough to avoid a burn-through, and all joints and fasteners are tightly secured to prevent arcing or sparking in the airplane’s fuel tanks.
How are aircraft radomes tested for lightning protection?
An aircraft radome undergoes lightning testing at National Technical Systems’ (Calabasas, Calif.) lightning test laboratory. A 2.4-megavolt generator produces a strike to test the lightning strike protection (LSP) system on the part. Radomes are particularly susceptible to Zone 1A lightning, which can produce 200,000 amps.
What makes a legacy airplane resistant to lightning?
Most of the external parts of legacy airplanes are metal structure with sufficient thickness to be resistant to a lightning strike. This metal assembly is their basic protection.
Which is the best material for lightning protection?
One of the most widely used is SURFACE MASTER from Cytec Engineered Materials (Tempe, Ariz.), an epoxy-based surfacing film with embedded expanded foil. “SURFACE MASTER is qualified on virtually every aircraft program today, including the Boeing 787, Airbus A350 XWB and HondaJet ,” reports Dalip Kohli,…