I’ve been on a plane that was struck by lightning. A HUGE noise and a bright flash that lit up the whole side of the plane. I was… concerned. The flight crew came on the intercom quickly and let us know that the plane had been hit but that the equipment was still sound, which was nice. We landed in Amsterdam soon after that, nothing out of the ordinary.
“Quote:
The way an aircraft tries to dissipate these step leaders is through the use of something called a “static wick”. A static wick is a piece of metal connected electrically to the frame of the aircraft, with one or two spikes or needles on the end. It is housed in a fiberglass rod to insulate it from the airplane. Because the spikes concentrate the electric charge around them, and they are connected to the airframe, they allow the airplane to dissipate any static electricity it may build up out into the air.”
Tries is the operative word. While at Cold Lake AFB we watched a couple of CF-5s taxi in. Before the pilots emerged the front windscreen was wiped down with what looked like a copper flag on a fiberglass pole with a grounding line. Was told that gold mesh in windscreen builds up a nasty static charge.
Im betting that those radars on the picture are pretty much just civillian. Add in the Canadian citys with the same coverage and if its airborne its going to be noticed. As well, there is no mention on the picture either of off shore naval pickets or an Awacs that happens to be on patrol.
Declan
As has already been stated, aircraft are designed to resist damage from strikes. That aside, aircraft strikes are rare and since planes don’t fly THROUGH thunderstorms they are not usually experiencing the most severe of strikes. A truly large bolt of lighting will damage what it hits out of sheer power. Anything with a laminated surface is not going to be pretty after such a strike.
Both radar and sometimes even communication coverage are spotty at the lower altitudes in some parts of the US. I have flown through the Dakotas, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana before. Even at 10k - 11k feet, radar coverage can at best be described as “in and out” in that part of the country, and the radio was out of range a few times.
This is not an issue at the altitudes that airliners typically fly at, though. (I mean over land in the lower 48)
Here’s another article that addresses the issue, in part:
The most recent update on the doomed flight said the plane lost multiple systems including the main cockpit display. If that were the case they probably lost weather radar. Without that, they are flying blind in a line of thunderstorms. That’s just really really bad.
I was at the SAMPE conference last month (tradeshow mostly focused on composites) and had an interesting conversation with a guy about this issue. As others have said, when the plane has a metal skin, there isn’t really an issue with lightning strikes. However, with the increased use of plastics and fiber reinforced polymer composites, lightning strikes are more of a concern. The guy had some test panels showing what happens when simulated lightning hits the composite and it was torn up, plastic torn away and fibers frayed out. The solution he was selling was to incorporate a metal screen material on the outside of the composite panel, so that the electricity would be conducted away, with minimal damage.
Dan Brown, Line 2. Mr. Brown, Line 2.
I agree that the U.S. radar-coverage map is limited to civilian radar. Especially since 9-11, I have a very hard time that areas as close to Washington as northern West Virginia and central Virginia aren’t covered by military radar at the very least.
Article about a plane that was hit by lightning and managed to land safely.
The spokeswoman for Southwest said, “lightning strikes aren’t unusual and planes are built to withstand such a jolt.”
In the 90s I was in a small (28 passengers or so) commercial plane that was stuck by lightning.
We were between Denver CO and Farminton NM. We made an emergency landing in Durango CO. As we left the aircraft we could see a hole in the aluminum nose cone with some wires hanging out.
Since we were about 50 miles from Farmington I rented a car and drove on in. They indicated they were going to have a new nose cone flown in from Denver but I opted out of that scenario.
Have you ever been in North Dakota? There ain’t nothin’ there, there. 
(Except of course for the nuclear silos :eek: near Minot, but I assume that the map is civilian radar, not military.)
In all seriousness, large parts of the great plains in Canada and the U.S. are very sparsely populated, with major gaps between even minor cities. Without major population centres, why would there be radar bases? Looking at that map, I think that most of those circles are based on the towns and cities, but the gaps are in the empty areas.