Whilst watching the news footage of the heat damage to the outer body on the 787 I wondered if anyone knows how lightning strikes are dissipated around the airframe on composite bodies compared to the older alloy airframes?
Plastic doesnt conduct but I would ahve thought the extreme voltage and heat would damage any plastic material?
I found some information on the wiki site about lightning strikes but wondered about its effects on composite material if anyone had any ideas?
Lightning - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Some of its comments.
"As a result of their greater power, as well as lack of warning, positive lightning strikes are considerably more dangerous. At the present time,
aircraft are not designed to withstand such strikes, since their existence was unknown at the time standards were set, and the dangers unappreciated until the destruction of a
glider in 1999.
[37] The standard in force at the time of the crash, Advisory Circular AC 20-53A, was replaced by Advisory Circular AC 20-53B in 2006,
[38] however it is unclear whether adequate protection against positive lightning was incorporated.
[39][40]Positive lightning is also now believed to have been responsible for the 1963 in-flight explosion and subsequent crash of
Pan Am Flight 214, a
Boeing 707.
[41] Due to the dangers of lightning, aircraft operating in U.S. airspace have been required to have
static discharge wicks to reduce the possibility of attracting a lightning strike, as well as to mitigate radio interference due to static buildup through friction with the air, but these measures may be insufficient for positive lightning.
[42]"