Aircraft lightning strike protection and grounding technique
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorsDoan D. Pham, Mark W. Tollan, Gregory R. Gleason
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An aircraft panel assembly 10 is provided, including a panel core 28, a plurality of pre-preg layers 30 surrounding the panel core 28 forming an internal layer of plies 34, at least one metal foil layer 38 positioned on an outer layer 40 of the internal layer of plies 34. The at least one metal foil layer 38 providing an electrical conduit between the outer surface 24 of the aircraft panel assembly 10 and a sub-structure 26 for grounding.
Claims20
An aircraft panel assembly comprising:
- a panel core;
- a plurality of pre-preg plies applied to said panel core forming an internal layer of plies;
- and
- at least one metal foil layer applied to the outer layer of said internal layer of plies, said at least one metal foil layer providing an electrical conduit between an outer surface and a sub-structure contact surface of the aircraft panel assembly.
An aircraft structure assembly comprising:
- a sub-structure;
- at least one aircraft panel assembly having an outer surface and a sub-structure contact surface, said at least one aircraft panel assembly comprising:
- a panel core;
- a plurality of pre-preg plies applied to said panel core forming an internal layer of plies;
- and
- at least one metal foil layer applied to the outer layer of said internal layer of plies, said at least one metal foil layer providing an electrical conduit between said outer surface and said sub-structure contact surface such that current received during a lightning strike is transferred from said outer surface to said substructure.
A method of preventing damage from current generated by a lightning strike on an aircraft structure assembly including a sub-structure and an aircraft panel assembly comprising:
- transferring the current from the lightning strike from an outer surface to the sub-structure including:
- transferring the current from an outer surface of the aircraft panel assembly to at least one metal foil layer, said at least one metal foil layer positioned over a plurality of pre-preg plies covering a honeycomb core;
- and
- transferring the current from said at least one metal foil layer to the sub-structure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.