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Re: How to dissipate charges from aeroplanes?



A minor footnote to John Ertel's wonderful post about static charge buildup on
aircraft:

I'm a civilian lightplane puke (hence the e-mail address), and some of the
planes I fly have static discharge wicks that are simply sharp-pointed pieces of
metal bonded to the control surfaces. Any excess charge presumably discharges
from the sharp points thanks to their small radii of curvature. The sharp points
have plastic pieces on either side --- not for any electrical reason, but just
to make it less likely that you'll prick yourself during the preflight
inspection.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Roger A. Freedman
Department of Physics and College of Creative Studies
University of California, Santa Barbara

Mailing address:
Department of Physics
UCSB
Santa Barbara CA 93106-9530

E-mail: airboy@physics.ucsb.edu
WWW: http://www.physics.ucsb.edu/~airboy/
Voice: (805) 893-2345
FAX: (805) 893-3307
Voicemail: (800) 344-3147 x4322