About 45 IET members, members of other engineering groups and guests were thoroughly entertained and informed by Rhys Philips, an IET member and a research engineer with Airbus, part of EADS.  He works for the division of the company that designs and tests methods that ensure aircraft that are struck by lightning stay in the air.   We were lucky that Rhys had just happened to be travelling to Ottawa after attending the CCA meeting and Volunteer conference in Orlando a couple of weeks ago.

 

Following the opening bars of Queens "Bohemian Rhapsody", Rhys spent a good hour and a half thoroughly explaining how lightning is formed, whether or not is dangerous and thoroughly demystifying some of the myths we have all heard about this phenomenon.

 

Lightning is formed when two surfaces build up sufficient charges of different polarity that the air between them ionizes, conducts electricity and allows the static electric charge to equalize.  Rhys pointed out that this process can be particularly challenging when there is an aircraft in between.  Older aircraft with aluminium bodies acted as Faraday cages, allowing the current to flow through the conductive exterior of the fuselage and on to ground.

 

Modern aircraft made with Carbon Fibre fuselage are not normally so conductive, which is why the outside of these aircraft are covered with a thin conductive mesh just under the last few coats of paints.  This ensures that lightning does not enter the aircraft, damage the fuselage, pass through any sensitive electronic equipment or injure the passengers.

 

However, he did point out that lightning does often strike the same place twice and that the best way to avoid being hit and injured by lightning if you are caught outside is to crouch down with your legs together so that the bolt does not enter your body through one foot and out the other, with the ensuing painful passage through your torso.  Rhys made the topic very interesting, adding some further musical references that all implied that Lightning was Frightening, and the audience left the room fully charged after a very enlightening evening!