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.