Description / Abstract:
This SAE Aerospace Recommended Practice (ARP) defines lightning
strike zones and provides guidelines for locating them on
particular aircraft, together with examples. The zone definitions
and location guidelines described herein are applicable to Parts
23, 25, 27 and 29 aircraft. The zone location guidelines and
examples are representative of in-flight lightning exposures.
Purpose:
The purpose of this ARP is to provide information to determine
the lighting attachment zones which is referred to as Lightning
Zoning. This ARP is used in conjunction with two other documents,
ARP5412 and ARP5416. The relationship between the three documents
is shown in Figure 1. These three documents are used to define the
aircraft lightning threat and tests required to support the
aircraft lightning protection certification.
Lightning zoning is a functional step in demonstrating that the
aircraft is adequately protected from both direct and indirect
effects of lighting. The purpose of lightning zoning is to
determine the surfaces of the aircraft which are likely to
experience lightning channel attachment and the structures which
may experience lightning current conduction between pairs of
entry/exit points.
Zoning should be used with the aircraft hazard assessment to
determine the appropriate protection for a given aircraft part or
location. To determine the appropriate protection for parts and
structure in a particular lightning zone, the criticality of the
systems or structure in the zone should be considered.