ptran00

I just saw a tv documentary called "City in the Sky" about airplane and they mentioned that while aviation carbon fiber composite on the Boeing 787 is 10 times stronger than aluminum, it does NOT redirect lighting around the car; therefore engineers had to add things like a copper skin over the carbon fiber to redirect the lighting strike around the plane's fuselage.
My question about my Corvette C7 is how does my car's carbon fiber and composite panels deal with lighting strike protection?

jvp

They don't, at all. It's not their job to. The frame of the car will direct the lightning strike into the ground; a plane doesn't have that sort of "luxury" since it's not touching the ground.

Bill Dearborn

A car body conducts lightening around the occupants similar to the way a Faraday Cage does. The Corvette's frame provides the same protection by providing a path around the occupants. When I was in the Army and riding in the back of 2.5 ton trucks we were instructed to install the metal hoops that support the canvas tops that can be used with these trucks. These provided a Faraday Cage like protection for the people riding in the rear of the truck.

I don't know how many Corvettes have ever been struck by lightening but they have been built in a similar fashion for around 65 years with close to 1.6 million cars produced so I suspect some have been struck. Nobody has ever complained they didn't protect the occupants properly.

Bill

ptran00

blkbrd69

How many Corvettes are flown through thunderstorms?

Corvette owners don't want ugly flame spray and paint over carbon, they want it pretty with a clear coat. We wont talk about the crummy clear coated faux carbon most parts are made of, not the prepreg used in aircraft and racecar parts.

Flame spray aluminum which is what aircraft carbon is covered with does transmit static to the static wicks, but when hit by lightning it doesn't even slow the burn of the strike.