Aluminum Body and Lightening

Many years ago in Belize a pilot and I were returning from tasking in the middle of the country in an RAF Puma helicopter. It was the rainy season and we found ourselves cornered by thunderstorms and in an area of the jungle where there were no landing sites so we pushed on through the weather. After landing I got out to do the After flight checks which included checking the rotor blades. There was a small "blister" about the size of a quarter on the underside of one of the blades so I got the ladder out to inspect it. There was an identical "blister" on the top side of the blade in the same place. I called over a senior tech and showed it to him. He immediately identified it as a lightning strike. Funny thing was neither the pilot nor myself had any idea it had happened...

X

Rover_Bill wrote:

JaxDad wrote:

What does the truck being made of aluminum have to do with it being struck by lightning? It’s no more or or less conductive than any other metal used in automotive body construction.

The heat of the lightning strike starts the interior on fire instantly and it doesn’t matter what metal it’s behind, it all conducts heat the same.

Pictures from the recent California wild fires showed a lot of burned out steel body pickups and cars. None that I can remember showed any with a totally burned off roof or engine hood like in this one. Just sayin.

This is absurd. Are you "just sayin" there was anything salvageable on the steel bodied vehicles? Are you "just sayin" that anyone trapped inside would be less dead in a steel bodied vehicle? What are you "just sayin"?

Rover_Bill wrote:
Aluminum wiring was band many years ago because it can cause house fires when arching. This is what happened when lightening hit an aluminum body Ford pickup. :E

Clicky

FAKE NEWS

Lightning cannot start car fire aluminum or any other


https://youtu.be/olxaFBtCV4Q

Rover_Bill wrote:
Aluminum wiring was band many years ago because it can cause house fires when arching.

That is not the whole story !

Aluminum wiring was band because it was incompatible with the contacts used in most junctions (not true any more) and the wire was not properly sized.

Aluminum wire is widely used for entrance cable on even some very large branch circuit. If you had a 50A 240VAC trailer outlet added to your house, it is a 50/50 chance the electrician used aluminum wire.

NM-B cable (commonly called Romex) is only available in copper. The most common single strand wire used in residential and industrial application (THHN/THWN) is only available in copper.

Alu has a lower melting temperature than steel

so it melted faster & more

that really doesn't matter

lighting started a fire, and that means insurance will 'total' the vehicle
steel shell or melted Alu

I have read many myths about how to stay safe in a lightening storm.

Fact is had lightening hit a fiberglass Body pick up like it did that Ford.. Same outcome... You have a bolt of electricity that has jumped how far (Actually only a short distance but it will go all the way UP to the clouds. You think a few inches of _____ (Rubber. Fiberglass, Aluminum, Steel, Cloth, Glass Whatever) is going to make a difference

A metal body MAY conduct the current AROUND you.. that's about the only thing that might help.

Rover_Bill wrote:
Aluminum wiring was band many years ago because it can cause house fires when arching. This is what happened when lightening hit an aluminum body Ford pickup. :E

Just buy some stock in a copper mine to make such an inaccurate and obviously biased posting?

Did you mean "bad" or "banned?"

If you meant "bad," there were some issues when it first started being used, because people were unfamiliar with it and used it incorrectly, mostly improper connections. Noting wrong with aluminum wire itself.

If you meant "banned," you're just plain old wrong. Aluminum wiring is listed in the NEC. What was banned was one particular aluminum wire alloy, called EC (aka 1350). It was replaced primarily with copper clad aluminum wire (CCA). It just needs to be used appropriately rated connectors/terminations. Even the cheapest outlets at Home Depot ($0.68) are rated for use with copper clad wire, and I doubt you can find any which aren't. There's also aluminum wire which isn't copper clad, made from a different alloy (AA-8000) than the EC which caused problems. The outlets compatible with that cost a bit more, like $2.

These days, whether to use copper or aluminum doesn't depend on safety, but material cost.

Pictures from the recent California wild fires showed a lot of burned out steel body pickups and cars. None that I can remember showed any with a totally burned off roof or engine hood like in this one. Just sayin.

I am thinking if a vehicle is a total loss, " burned out " , does it really matter.

Rover_Bill wrote:

JaxDad wrote:

What does the truck being made of aluminum have to do with it being struck by lightning? It’s no more or or less conductive than any other metal used in automotive body construction.

The heat of the lightning strike starts the interior on fire instantly and it doesn’t matter what metal it’s behind, it all conducts heat the same.

Pictures from the recent California wild fires showed a lot of burned out steel body pickups and cars. None that I can remember showed any with a totally burned off roof or engine hood like in this one. Just sayin.

Just sayin??? Are you saying the burned out steel vehicles were not totaled? Or just less totaled than an aluminum body?