Maintenance of the Lightning Protection System on Certified Aircraft

Over the last 5 years a set of certification requirements for transport category aircraft have been developed by the Federal Aviation Agency and the Joint Aviation Authorities for lightning strike protection. Those requirements were jointly developed by a cooperative effort between industry and regulators attending a series of committee meetings sponsored by SAE and the ARAC. Within the last two years, the regulatory agencies have recognized a need to address the continued airworthiness of lightning protection devices installed on transport category aircraft to meet these certification requirements.