Can aircraft trigger thunder?

[brockenspectre]

Having collected my dog from kennels (just outside the village of Biggin Hill) this afternoon, we went for a walk in a park local to home (Beckenham) - the sky has been cloudy and sort of moody but with enough breeze to keep most rain at bay. As we were walking one of the aircraft in the BIG stack was rumbling through the clouds and then...I heard thunder...the engine noise continued..a couple more thunder rolls seemed to track the aircraft and then stopped. The dog looked up (he hates thunder), was planning on being scared but the "thunder" stopped, the aircraft could be heard moving off towards LHR (or somewhere) and we continued walking.

So my question is...can aircraft trigger thunder in their wake? OR what was it we were hearing?

[eyeinthesky]

Don't forget that thunder is the noise you hear when lightning causes the rapid expansion of the air. Lightning can occur within clouds or from cloud to cloud, and may not be visible to you. Better people than me will confirm or deny whether aircraft can trigger lightning, but I think they can as they can present the electric imbalance (+ve to -ve) that the lightning needs to trigger. If it did so, I imagine the aircraft would suffer or report a lightning strike.

Another explanation might be that you heard the reverberation of the engine noise within or between the clouds and/or the ground.

Short answer: don't know!!

[Red Four]

Yes, they can. I have observed this phenomenon many, many times, particularly by departing large aircraft, especially when the the base of the CB is fairly low.
However does not seem to often result in the aircraft being hit, but as eyeinthesky says, causes an electrical imbalance that then enables the cloud to discharge, probably earlier than it would have done without the intervention of the aircraft (between the cloud and the earth).

[Chimbu chuckles]

I got struck by lightning twice in 30 seconds going into Bankok last year while flying close to but not in cloud. I'm certain the aircraft triggered the event.

Chuck.

[doubleu-anker]

Yes they certainly can, especially flight into terrain, controlled or otherwise. I am sure the larger the A/C, the bigger the bang.

[Xacto]

This link is worth a look .
http://lightning.pwr.eng.osaka-u.ac....emp/plane.html
Be patient while the clip downloads, it's worth the wait.

Xacto