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Re: Europa-List: Lightning Strikes to Composite Aircraft

Subject: Re: Europa-List: Lightning Strikes to Composite Aircraft
From: n3eu@comcast.net
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 2003 21:21:27

> Hi All,
> According to the AAIB at the last PFA Rally at Kemble, aircraft do not
> attract lightening, so it will only strike if the aircraft flies
> through the path of lightening when it is already travelling.  This
> is my understanding of what was said.  I therefore try to give CBs a  
> wide birth.

> Regards,
> William

If that was an exact quote, the AAIB representative may have been winging it, or
"the dog ate his homework."  The below research paper is long and technical,
but the first sentence is in plain English: "Not until the 1980's was it 
convincingly
demonstrated that the vast majority of lightning strikes to aircraft
are initiated by the aircraft, as opposed to the aircraft's intercepting a 
discharge
in progress."

http://plaza.ufl.edu/rakov/ProgressinAerospaceSciencespaper.pdf

Regards,
Fred F.




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