Dear friends and followers, welcome back to my channel, and lovely greetings from the Deutsche Museum here in Munich, Germany.
Today's video, I'll be talking about one of the most classic passenger questions -
"What happens if an airplane gets hit by lightning", so let's get started!
Today's video is brought to you by Away Suitcases. All Away carry-on suitcases come with an integrated power bank,
so you can fully charge your mobile phone up to five times. Plus, all their products come with a lifetime warranty.
Visit http://www.awaytravel.com/joe to get a twenty dollar discount on any suitcase and use promo code Joe during checkout.
I've heard many weird rumors about this topic like the airplane experience a total system loss or the pilots get blinded by the light
so they won't be able to continue to flight any further. That's odd because I've personally encountered
numerous lightning strikes and none of these rumors matches my experiences.
And trust me, planes get hit by lightning a lot!
I would say every pilot experiences two to three lightning strikes each year.
But how can planes continue flying through the sky after being hit by lightning? Now the best way of showing
what really happens is by doing the experiment here at the Deutsche Museum. Now behind me, you can see this little steel cage
which will be our plane for today. If you squint your eyes a little bit, it more or less looks like a Boeing.
So what we'll do is
I'll climb into the cage and get lifted up into the air and John, who's leading the experiment, will start the
generators to generate the necessary power and voltage for the lightning. And to actually show the lightning hitting the steel chamber
they've installed these two arms with brass endings where the lightning will be visible. Then the cage will be submitted to
220000 volts
(so not the average output from your living room socket). And because I believe in English physicists and German engineering
I'll touch the inner skin of the cage as it gets hit by lightning.
So let's get airborne!
So as we approach in the thunderstorm area, the first thing to do is to request an avoidance heading via ATC and
simultaneously reduce the airplane speed to a safe turbulence speed. If there's no way out
and you have to cross through a yellow or even a red marked area presented on your weather radar screen
you're most likely going to encounter a lightning strike. And then this happens.
I don't think you can see this
but I can use my hand and to touch right here... so all good.
It's just quick and loud!
If I would be hit in a plane right now but I'm actually safe in here. It's all good.
That was pretty loud!
So, as you saw in the video
I was able to touch the inner skin of the steel cage.
But how can that be if there were 220000 volts
rushing through that cage? Now most airplanes are built out of metal (primarily alloy) and as we look at the airplane from this perspective,
the lightning strike hits the metal surface, the electrons of the lightning strike flow onto the metal surface, but
electrons have the characteristics to push themselves away from each other, as they have the same negative charge.
So where would you think will the electrons flow along the metal - on the inner or the outer
part of the airframe structure? Obviously on the outer part, otherwise this would have been the last video on my channel!
The outer skin of the airframe gives the electrons more space to separate from each other
rather than on the inner surface of the metal. I hope this makes sense.
But, with each lightning strike you have an entry point and an exit point, similar as if you would pour water over an object.
Except there is more damage to the plane with a lightning strike than with water!
After getting hit by lightning, the airplane technicians have to perform a thorough search for the entry and
exit point of the strike, as the extreme heat of the strike
creates nasty burn marks or even holes on the airplane skin. So for future flights near active thunderstorms
you don't have to worry too much about system losses, or engine failures, etc.
The airplane is safe from lightning strikes due to the physics law of the Faraday Cage,
discovered by English physicist Michael Faraday in
1835. Told you
I trust English physicists! So ever heard of the saying,
"Inside the car is the safest place to hide from a thunder storm because your car acts as a Faraday Cage"?
And so does the airplane! Regardless of that, pilots will always try to circumnavigate
thunderstorms by the use of the weather radar and ATC
communication, [OVER RADIO] "Emirates 412 requesting heading 070 to avoid weather for the next 50 miles"
because airplanes can get damaged in severe thunderstorms, but more likely to turbulence than to lightning strikes.
That's it for today. If you ever come to Munich this museum is worth a visit - trust me, especially their aviation gallery is
outstanding! Make sure to foam a touch-and-go at my Instagram account and don't forget to hit the subscribe button and the notification bell
so you won't miss out any upcoming videos. All the best, see you next week, your Captain Joe!
Please click on to the Away travel link in the video description below so you don't miss out on this great opportunity
on getting $20 discount on your purchase by using the promo code Joe during checkout.
I'm very happy with my Away Suitcase purchase.
Just recently my phone was about to die after a long day of traveling, and I started searching for the nearest socket to charge it up again.
Admit it. We've all been there. Luckily, having my Away suitcase,
I just plugged into cable into the charger and let the suitcase do the work.
Away uses high quality materials while offering a much lower price compared to other brands, as they are selling directly to you. Now all their suitcases
are made with premium German polycarbonate, therefore
they are unrivaled in strength and impact resistance.
But, at the same time, are very lightweight. Other than that, if anything breaks,
they will fix it or replace it for you. And here comes the best part - for the rest of your life.
Have fun shopping and traveling with your Away suitcase, and maybe, I'll be your pilot on your next journey travelling far, far, away.