ELECTRICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA

How is a Plane Protected from Lightning?   Most aircraft do not fly into lightning storms, or fly through storms or areas where lightning is likely to be present. What we see as lightning is really a massive flood of electrons seeking equilibrium, either from cloud-cloud or from cloud-ground. In both cases, huge amounts of electric charge build up at the edges of the cloud. The electricity finds it's way from one place to the other via what's called a "step leader". continue.. Lightning Strike Protection for Carbon Fiber Aircraft   Lightning strikes on transport aircraft happen periodically depending on many parameters including atmospheric conditions and operational characteristics of the airplane. Most recent nacelle fleet history, circa 2002-2005, has shown that lightning strike damage has occurred more frequently on shorter mission commercial aircraft equipped with composite panels than prior configurations of nacelle panels. It should be...

What is a Lightning? http://en.wikipedia.org   Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge (spark) accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms. From this discharge of atmospheric electricity, a leader of a bolt of lightning can travel at speeds of 220,000 km/h (140,000 mph), and can reach temperatures approaching 30,000 °C (54,000 °F), hot enough to fuse silica sand into glass channels known as fulgurites which are normally hollow and can extend some distance into the ground. There are some 16 million lightning storms in the world every year.Lightning causes ionisation in the air through which it travels, leading to the formation of nitric oxide and ultimately, nitric acid, of benefit to plant life below. Lightning can also occur within the ash clouds from volcanic eruptions, or can be caused by violent forest fires which generate sufficient dust to create a static charge.  continue.. Ligh...