Les campagnes en vol des années 1980 ont montré deux mécanismes intervenant lors du foudroiement d’un avion. L’un correspond à l’interception d’un éclair naturel par l’avion et l’autre, au déclenchement de l’éclair par l’avion lui-même. Dans ce dernier cas, deux traceurs foudre se forment depuis les zones de renforcement du champ électrique atmosphérique sur l’avion. Après cette phase durant laquelle l’avion s’est peu déplacé, l’éclair poursuit son développement pendant une durée d’environ 1 seconde. Les canaux de l’éclair restent immobiles dans l’air, tandis que l’avion continue d’avancer. Le pied d’arc se déplace alors à la surface de l’avion pour compenser l’avancée de l’aéronef.
Le retour d’expérience des avionneurs et des compagnies aériennes révèle que, dans la grande majorité des cas, le foudroiement se produit durant les phases d’approche, de descente ou de décollage. Seulement 8 % des foudroiements entraînent des effets jugés importants sur l’avion, car ils impactent des éléments critiques. Le foudroiement d’un avion produit les effets directs et indirects sur l’appareil.
Pour garantir la sécurité d’un avion, les autorités de l’aviation civile exigent qu’un avion civil soit protégé à la foudre pour être certifié et résister à des courants impulsionnels de 200 kA.
L’allégement des avions par l’utilisation des matériaux composites conduit à une meilleure compréhension de l’interaction de la foudre avec ces matériaux et avec les nouvelles géométries d’aéronefs. Cela permettra d’élaborer des solutions techniques optimisées du point de vue de la masse, des marges de conception, des délais et coûts de développement et de certification.
In-flight campaigns in the 1980s revealed two mechanisms involved in aircraft lightning strikes. One corresponds to the interception of natural lightning by the aircraft, and the other to the triggering of lightning by the aircraft itself. In the latter case, two lightning leaders form from areas of atmospheric electric field enhancement on the aircraft. After this phase, during which the aircraft has moved little, the lightning continues to develop for approximately 1 second. The lightning channels remain stationary in the air, while the aircraft continues to advance. The arc foot then moves along the surface of the aircraft to compensate for the aircraft’s forward motion.
Feedback from aircraft manufacturers and airlines indicates that, in the vast majority of cases, lightning strikes occur during the approach, descent, or takeoff phases. Only 8% of lightning strikes cause effects deemed significant on the aircraft, as they impact critical components. A lightning strike on an aircraft produces both direct and indirect effects on the airframe.
To ensure aircraft safety, civil aviation authorities require civil aircraft to be lightning-protected to be certified and to withstand impulse currents of 200 kA.
The lightening of aircraft through the use of composite materials necessitates a better understanding of lightning’s interaction with these materials and with new aircraft geometries. This will allow for the development of optimized technical solutions in terms of mass, design margins, and development and certification timelines and costs.
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Keywords: Lightning, Aircraft, Protection
Philippe Lalande 1
CC-BY 4.0
@article{CRMECA_2025__353_G1_1127_0,
author = {Philippe Lalande},
title = {Le foudroiement des avions~: compr\'ehension, impacts et protection},
journal = {Comptes Rendus. M\'ecanique},
pages = {1127--1153},
year = {2025},
publisher = {Acad\'emie des sciences, Paris},
volume = {353},
doi = {10.5802/crmeca.324},
language = {fr},
}
Philippe Lalande. Le foudroiement des avions : compréhension, impacts et protection. Comptes Rendus. Mécanique, Volume 353 (2025), pp. 1127-1153. doi: 10.5802/crmeca.324
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