Aircraft jolts from lightning bolts (electronic systems protection)

The trend toward the use of composite materials and digital electronics has renewed the need to quantify the effects of lightning strikes to airplanes, since composite structures do not provide shielding equivalent to that of metal aircraft, and digital systems are potentially more susceptible to upset by electrical transients than are analog electronic systems. A research program, called the Storm Hazards Program, has been run by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the past eight years and has provided the first statistically significant measurements of the electromagnetic interaction between lightning and aircraft. A NASA-owned F-106B airplane has been flown through thunderstorms about 1500 times at altitudes between 5000 and 40000 feet (1500 to 12000 meters). The airplane, lightning-hardened and outfitted with special instruments, was hit by lightning 714 times. The types of measurements made and the results are described. The Storm Hazards Program has concluded, and interpretation of the data gathered is underway.<>