On average, all American civil aircraft are struck by lightning at least once a year. However, since 1967 until now, no American civil aircraft has fallen because of lightning. This shows that modern technology can ensure almost absolute safety for flights before the impact of lightning.
"Miracle of god" .
On Monday morning, July 16, local time, a Boeing 737-700 aircraft of Aires airline (Colombia) broke into sections while landing. This event is called "god miracle" because of the 131 people present on the plane, only 1 died.
Although many sources believe that the aircraft had been struck by lightning before landing, according to Gustavo Barrero, a senior Air Force officer of Colombia, this is unlikely to be the cause of the accident, and the final conclusion. The same is only given after the end of the investigation.
In fact, in the years 1940-1960, sometimes the plane crash occurred due to lightning burning fuel tanks, electronic system failure . But since then, a series of new technologies have been Application has caused these accidents to become the past.
In the early 1980s, NASA implemented a project to examine the effects of lightning on modern aircraft generations. Bruce Fisher and his colleagues chose an extremely risky research: flying straight into storms, letting lightning strike their planes and see what happens, instead of sitting and calculating with the above models. computer. During the eight years of the project, the team's F-106B flew nearly 1,500 flights into dangerous weather areas, struck by lightning more than 700 times but returned safely.
. and the miracle of technology
Like Bruce Fisher, passengers and crew on commercial flights today can see lightning and hear loud noises if their aircraft is hit by lightning. But nothing serious will happen.
Edward Rupke, Lightning Technologies' chief engineer, the world leader in lightning protection technology, said most of the aircraft cases were made primarily of aluminum, a very good conductive material, completely free of slots. open, so when struck by lightning, electric current will only move along the outer shell of the aircraft without affecting the inside.
Some modern aircraft with poor conductive composite shells will be covered with a thin copper mesh for lightning protection. The kilometer-long wiring system, computers and other control devices of the aircraft are protected by lightning protection covers and modern electrical surge suppression equipment by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or Similar authorities in countries producing inspection aircraft.
The fuel system of the aircraft, including the storage compartment, pipelines, supply lines and covers, is designed and manufactured so that no small sparks can burst in case of lightning strikes. The part of the aircraft outside the gas storage compartment must be thick enough to not burn. Special attention is given to the tip of a cone with radar and other flying devices.
To ensure radar operation, the shell here cannot be made of conductive substances. Instead, lightning strays will be mounted outside the nose of the aircraft. A lightning dispersion strip may consist of metal rods, or a series of conductive material studs attached together on a plastic tape. This device works similar to the lightning rod of buildings.