With around 240 aircraft delivered to date, the Airbus A380 has reached the end of its lifespan. The decision to end its production as soon as the last orders are delivered to Emirates was announced in February 2019.  

Annually, the A380 gets struck by lightning 1 to 2 times, like the A350. Given the current number of Airbus A380’s global fleet, this means that there are approximately 240 to 480 lightning strikes per year. 

Despite the frequency of lightning strikes on the Airbus A380, no major aircraft incidents result from the occurrence.  

Due to its weight and fatigue properties, GLARE is widely used on the Airbus A380. It stands out from other “sandwich” composites because its alternating layers of glass fiber reinforced bond film (epoxy) and aluminum are applied at 90-degree angles to each other. Positioning the layers that way adds to the material’s strength. After several years of service (but not sales), we know A380 was a big aircraft, but it was not as big a success as Airbus had planned. The newer, smaller, A350xwb won’t exactly “replace” the A380, but it has already found a niche in the market, mainly because it fits better on the smaller footprints of most US airports.  

Interestingly, Airbus opted for not using GLARE on the A350. Instead, the manufacturer returned to the familiar recipe using aluminum alloy around the cockpit, and carbon fiber for the body of the aircraft. When considering the best lightning strike protection for an aircraft type, it’s critical to consider the aircraft’s overall design and the placement and manner of attachment of its components. 

When struck by lightning, the aircraft is grounded and thoroughly inspected for damage such as pits and burn marks by ground engineers to guarantee its airworthiness before the next flight. The inspection alone requites 3 engineers and 12 hours to complete.  

To assess the status of the aircraft, the 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 24 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 aviation Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO). 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 Airbus A380 can decrease the time by 75%. With a drone, the entire process is no longer a matter of hours (12 hours), but minutes (60 minutes). Thus, our drone will safely fly around the aircraft and capture high-resolution pictures, allowing aircraft engineers to make a faster damage assessment.