Army-Navy Precipitation-Static Project: Part VI High-Voltage Installation of the Precipitation-Static Project

A special artificial-lightning generator has been developed through the University of Minnesota co-operation with the Naval Research Laboratory, to provide accurate laboratory duplication of thunderstorm-cloud field conditions. Conditions of electrical-field stress before the lightning discharge are produced by an automatically controlled transition of a generator of high-voltage direct current into a surge generator, resulting in a doubled field stress and a surge breakdown with lightning current characteristics. The combination is thus very suitable for studying certain phases of aircraft operation, particularly communications, under controlled laboratory conditions, corresponding to flight under electrical-storm conditions.