To: alosaurus
What you stated about the electrical bonding on an aircraft is true with one exception. On the A-310 the slats and flaps are not bonded to the airframe. This causes several problems to include arcing when the flaps are retracted. Prior to retraction the flaps can build up as much as 1400 volts of static electricity. Because of the size of the flaps the arcing can last several seconds and in the process it can electrically etch the rear spar or the wing skin. In the case of the slats not being bonded to the structure this can cause an even bigger problem. According to Airbus there are two points on the A-310 that are the primary attach points for a lightning strike. One is the nose that has diverter strips to carry the charge into the airframe and the other is a partially extended slat. If lightning attaches to the slat edge the charge will arc to the nearest slat jack and into the wing structure. Because of the design of the wing fuel tanks the arcing from the slat jack will go into the fuel tank and blow the wing off.
Regarding the discharge of the airframe static charge it does not go through the tires (tyres) to ground. If this were the case the charge would have to pass through the bearings and the repeated discharge at each landing would eat the bearings due to static discharge erosion. If you look closely at the landing gear of an aircraft there is a flexible cable attached to the landing gear and it has a metal ferule attached to it. This is the first thing that hits the ground and it dissipates the charge.
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The Cat