Re: Aircraft and lightning

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: William Beaty <billb@xxxxxxxxxx>

On Thu, 4 Aug 2005, Tesla list wrote:

> Relatively few aircraft accidents have been attributed to lightning
> (as you say, they're pretty lightning proof) and most commercial
> aircraft have been hit by lightning more than once.

As I understand it, it's very rare that an aircraft is hit by an existing
lightning bolt.   Instead, the aircraft triggers the leader.  The aircraft
"launches" lightning rather than being struck.

This would rather be like a large TC which is adjusted just below the
voltage that gives outbreaks of plasma streamers.  Then throw little balls
of foil at the main terminal and watch the foil send out a leader inwards
towards the terminal and simultaneously outwards away from the terminal.
Analogy of the analogy:  if e-field is space is like a piece of stretched
glass, then a plasma leader is like a crack in that glass.  Poke a highly
stressed piece of glass with a sharp tool, and don't be suprised that
cracks start right at the location the tool touched.  The aircraft "pokes"
the thunderstorm, and the "cracks" launch outwards from the sharp tips of
the aircraft.



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William J. Beaty                            SCIENCE HOBBYIST website