Building the 787 | When lightning strikes

Seattle Times ^ | Sunday, March 5, 2006 | Dominic Gates

[phantomworker]

Ping

[supercat]

My first thought when reading the article, even before I reached the part about the NGS, was that there should be a design to prevent the formation of explosive fuel-air mixtures. My thought would have been to use a bladder (which, even if full of air, would not allow it to pre-mix with fuel prior to a catastrophic failure) but if nitrogen-generation systems can be produced which don't create risks of their own (e.g. causing an overpressure condition) those would seem reasonable as well.

[Aeronaut]

[Battle Axe]

My uncle Carl was a pilot for TWA. His plane was struck by lightning.....maybe in the 1950's. There is a family picture of him standing on the ground looking at the hole on the nose and wondering how he got the thing on the ground safely.

He told us that lighting will hit the nose and flash down the isle and out the tail. That is why I always felt they said stay seated and not in the isles.

[TSgt]

Great post!

[cmsgop]

I saw the mail Fuselage for the 787 the other day, I think it maybe a Tour Mock Up, but who knows

[phantomworker]

On East Marginal, you mean? I was going to check out the composites.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

the first commercial airframe made entirely from carbon fiber-based plastic.

I could see how it could cause some concern that this is the basic raw material for the plane.

Safety experts have recommended that passengers be strictly prohibited from bringing this onto the plane.

[phantomworker]

LOL! I can see how one strike would do it.

[AZRepublican]

I know there is a special electrical conductive like paint made here in Phx for special applications...wonder how that might work in discharging lightning??

[phantomworker]

Interesting idea about the paint. Of course, plastic conducts an electric charge in a different way than metal.

[narby]

Nowhere in the article did I see mention the fact that carbon fiber is conductive. Very conductive.

Granted, the epoxy resin it lives in is not, but I know that carbon fiber Lanciar aircraft are not suspect for serious damage in lightning like their S glass brothers (Glasair, and early Lanciar models like mine)

Glasair went to the trouble to build an airplane with a wire mesh imbedded in the glass to avoid lightning damage. I don't think they sold it. It was a test version paid for by a government grant, and they zapped it in a large arc machine to test the results (it was OK).

I think the concern in this article are a bit overblown. Lightning for the most part should be conducted around fuel tanks, but as the 707 and 747 incidents demonstrate, sh!t happens.

[phantomworker]

Most of the time, after a flash and a bang, lightning damage is minimal, and airplanes fly on to their destinations.

Kind of unnerving when you think about it. LOL

[phantomworker]

Since the TWA flight 800 that exploded over New York, was blamed on a wiring short circuit in the center fuel tank, the center fuel tank has been redesigned. I think they were even looking at using a type of inerting system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inerting_system

[dalereed]

I was hit twice over the fuel tank in the wing of my Saratoga and even being gasoline, it didn't blow up.

[baltodog]

There's going to be something conductive near the surface resin...either adhesive-backed foil (not necessarily aluminum) or mesh...

The leading edges were off-loaded to us...

[cmsgop]

Yes on East Maginal right in front of Randy's