Despite the fact that the probability of lightning striking you is really negligible, the truth is that everything changes a lot if, instead of on the mainland, you find yourself traveling on an airplane. As information, tell you that every year at least one case is reported in which a plane is struck by lightning during a storm.
As you can see, contrary to what you can imagine, when flying in an airplane the probability of being struck by lightning is much higher than it is if you are on land, on the other hand, the truth is that these electric shocks usually cause very little damage to the aircraftPerhaps the most worrisome thing can be the experience of travelers since it is not usually too pleasant.
Although an airplane is not usually damaged, the experience of being struck by lightning in mid-flight is not pleasant at all
Due precisely to the need that companies have to develop some type of weapon to prevent their aircraft from being struck by lightning, there are several investigations and projects that are being carried out throughout the world. In this sense, today I want to talk to you about one that has just seen the light thanks to a team of engineers from MIT, even where we are told about a very simple methodology that can make airplanes go unnoticed when they fly into a storm.
As explained in the paper that has been published by this team of researchers, the problem that planes usually have when they have no choice but to fly into a storm, no matter how much the pilots try to avoid them, is that at the same time that are moving inside the plane is charging with electricity forming a negative pole at one end and a positive pole at the other.
As sure you are imagining, it is a matter of time before this load reaches a critical level on the plane thus creating a plasma flow around it that closes the circuit between the electrically charged clouds and the ground. At this very moment is when lightning strikes and the only reason it does not affect the passengers is because the fuselage of the plane itself literally acts as a kind of Faraday cage isolating everything that is inside.
As we mentioned, and since pilots usually avoid having to move inside a storm, surely you have never been struck by lightning while traveling inside an airplane. As a detail, tell you that when this happens inside the plane a brutal boom is heard while several of the electrical equipment can be damaged, on all those located outside the Faraday cage such as the antennas of the plane itself.
The solution found is to electrically charge the fuselage of the aircraft
To avoid this unpleasant experience, many companies have equipped their aircraft with different countermeasures although, apparently, scientists from the MIT, in collaboration with experts from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia y Boeing, have managed to develop a platform that ensures that these rays are not generated. The idea is to install in airplanes small generators that release a negative charge on the outside of the fuselage. The presence of this load serves to modulate the load produced by the storm.
The idea, although it seems a bit strange and even counterproductive, thinks that we are talking about generating an electrical charge in the middle of a storm, it is perfect to avoid generating lightning. What is proposed is to achieve that thanks to the fact that the aircraft fuselage is negatively charged in a completely uniform way, prevents a dipole charge from forming and that the plane attracts electric shocks. At the moment the solution has already been tested in a wind tunnel obtaining a fully satisfactory result. For now, the next step is to test its effectiveness in small devices such as a drone that flies at high altitude.
Further information: MIT