Army-Navy Precipitation-Static Project: Part V-The High-Voltage Characteristics of Aircraft in Flight

The important high-voltage electrical characteristics of aircraft in flight are determined from (a) flight operations in precipitation areas; (b) flight operations using a new artificial charger to electrify the airplane in flight; (c) high-voltage experiments on the airplane supported in a giant hangar; and (d) theoretical analysis. It is shown how the fundamental electrical constants of the airplane may be approximately determined and how these may be used to forecast the high-voltage behavior of a flying aircraft. It is shown that, at a given altitude, the current I discharged by an airplane in flight is of the form I = AE + B(E
²
-E
0
²
) where E is the magnitude of the electric field as measured on the belly and A, B and E
0
are constants. The electrical capacitance of an aircraft in flight is about 20 per cent of the wing span expressed in centimeters.