Over the years Boeing has delivered a total of 1,556 aircraft to major airlines all over the world. The aircraft is getting closer to retirement as the total aircraft in active service now number around 350.

The Boeing 747 is struck once or twice a year by lightning and given the global fleet in the world, this results in 350 to 700 lightning strikes per year.

Over the course of more than 50 years of service, there has been 1 crash attributed to a lightning strike. In 1976, an Iranian Boeing 747 freighter crashed due to the lightning strikes’ impact on its fuel tanks. The investigation carried out by the United States National Transportation Safety Board concluded that a bolt of lightning struck the fuselage near the cockpit and exited the left wing’s static discharger located at the wingtip. It created a spark in the fuel tank number 1, which contained 11,200 kg of fuel. The blast wave, at more than 5.5 bar, from the fuel vapor ignition caused the tank walls to collapse. It is most likely that the ignition spark penetrated the fuel tank due to an open circuit in a fuel valve wiring. With the explosion, the airflow deteriorated sharply, and the wings began to bend. As the flight was passing through an area of turbulence at high speed, the wing trim experienced mechanical stress. The entire left wing separated just a few seconds later.  

After the aircraft is struck by lightning, the aircraft is grounded and thoroughly inspected for damage such as pits and burn marks by aircraft maintenance engineers to guarantee its airworthiness before the next flight. The inspection alone requires 3 licensed aircraft maintenance engineers and 12 hours to complete. The total man-hours for a Boeing 747 lightning strike inspection are 36 hours.

To assess the status of the aircraft, the aircraft maintenance engineers will move from station to station, from stringer to stringer, using additional equipment to inspect the top of the fuselage and the tail. The tail is 16 meters high and not easy to reach while the aircraft elevators and stabilizers are blocking the man lifter equipment. Often during the inspection, additional damage can be caused.

The use of drones for aircraft inspections brings game-changing results for the aviation industry and particularly Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) companies and organizations. All aspects of the inspection procedure, from drone flight to report generation, are automated, allowing the ground team to easily analyze and report the status of an aircraft.

In the event of a lightning strike, using a drone to perform aircraft inspection on the Boeing 747 can decrease the inspection time by 75%. A drone can speed up the entire process of the General Visual Inspection (GVI) during a lightning strike inspection, which can now be performed in minutes (60 minutes) instead of hours (12 hours). Our drone will safely fly around the aircraft and capture high-resolution pictures, allowing aircraft maintenance engineers to make a much faster damage assessment.