Having flown below FL300 in propeller driven aircraft for most of my life I have seen St Elmo in all his glory, many, many times, and on occasion have listened to, and seen him, on the radio and other instruments. This lead me to wonder whether static electricity build up and/or magnetic induction could not have played a role in the 787 saga. In an aluminium can we have never had any problems but I remember that Beechcraft had some issues in isolating their avionics in the first plastic pusher that they built in the 1980s. Both static buildup and strong military radar caused some problems, if my memory serves. Any thoughts from the specialists?
Last edited by Baron 58P; 14th March 2013 at 13:43.