How do air-crafts avoid being struck by lightning while in flight during thunderstorms?

Question

the Figu & Khoi, I've heard about this stuff about electric charges and the ground. also cautioned not to escape storms by standing under a tree. So, if I were to fly in the like Icarus and his dad, I'd safely cruise through storms!! Do birds of the air get struck by lightning? pardon for asking for more.

Jacob, what are cells? Could you unpack for me to understand better please!

Answer 1

Aircraft cannot avoid being struck by aircraft, and as was previously stated, are struck frequently, but typically without major, if any, incident. As a pilot, I will tell you that most aircraft cannot fly over major cells. With cells reaching 25-60K, a great majority of aircraft won't be able to avoid the worst cells. However, airlines and "smart" pilots will do their best to avoid flying through areas like that, due to wind shear, damaging hail and the remote possibility that there may be a strike.

EDIT: Storm cells are areas that show up as being the orange with the red in the middle, to even worse. Those areas are more dangerous for the fact that there is a lot of air moving vertically, and therefore producing a great amount of turbulence, but of course, they also can contain lightning. Hope that helps...

Answer 2

Aircraft get struck by lightning because when they fly though the air, they pick up static electricity. The difference in potential (positive charge or negative charge) attracts lightning from storm clouds (that also have a positive or negative charge). For protection, aircraft have static discharge wicks (they look like little wires sticking out the rear edge of the wings/tail etc) to get rid of the charge. Also all components in an aircraft are bonded together, no lightning can't fry you, or a flight control computer. The only damage typically is some pin holes in fibreglass parts and burnt paint. I've seen aircraft with hundreds of strikes and no substantial damage.

Answer 3

Aircraft are indeed hit by lightning upon occasion . They are avoided but sometimes the destination and back up airports are surrounded by storms. The pilots spot the burn marks on a walkaround. Boeing in the past did not ground their aircraft. In the late 1990's when the center fuel tank on the TWA 747 off NYC used the fuel in its center fuel for take off and kept its fuel pump on, the tank allegedly imploded from hot wires, a hot pump etc. The McDonnell Douglas aircraft (MD-80/90, MD-11) use electrical bonding to prevent this occurrence and reemphasized this after the then competitor's crash on the assembly line and in the training classroom..

Answer 4

Most airplanes generally fly above the highest level of thunderstorm-able cloud cover, whether it be commercial or private aircraft. BUT, quite a few planes a year go down due to lightning strikes.

Answer 5

They try to fly over or around thunderstorms if at all possible because of wind-shears. However, they can't prevent the aircraft from being struck by lightning.

Answer 6

There are several small rods at the rear or trailing edge of the wing , we call them "STATIC DISCHARGE"

The purpose of these "Static Discharge" are to dissipate STATIC on the airplane surface and Discharge them to the Air. The polarity of the airplane becomes nuetral, the possibility of lightning on the airplane will be less.

Sometimes pilots unable to avoid Thunderstorm and there is some charge left on the airplane. Lightning may strike on the airplane surface, but it will dissipate throught these Static Discharge very quickly without damage to the airplane.

Answer 7

when encountering a thunder storm one trys to fly around or fly over the storm system...but the are no aircraft features that repell it from being hit by lightning. Where ever the lightning wants to go, it goes.

Answer 8

They don't. They are often struck with little or no damage. The Aircraft is not grounded, and most of the time there is only a pin-hole to show the strike. VERY RARELY does any major damage result.

Answer 9

I think most aircraft fly over thunderheads if they must fly during a storm. Besides, lightning seeks out ground and aircraft are not grounded when they are in the air.

Answer 10

Because they fly about the storms not in the storms so you look down at the lightning from the airplane.