St. Elmo’s fire
https://imgur.com/gallery/xn3bV

Could an aircraft surface be designed to generate more static discharge?

and if that’s possible could an aircraft use static discharge buildup to help power itself.

Tau.Neutrino said:

St. Elmo’s fire
https://imgur.com/gallery/xn3bV

Could an aircraft surface be designed to generate more static discharge?

and if that’s possible could an aircraft use static discharge buildup to help power itself.

Could something like this be used all over the surface of an airplane?

New triboelectric nanogenerator generates electricity at the bend of a finger

Tau.Neutrino said:

St. Elmo’s fire
https://imgur.com/gallery/xn3bV

Could an aircraft surface be designed to generate more static discharge?

and if that’s possible could an aircraft use static discharge buildup to help power itself.

Yes, an aircraft could be designed to generate more static discharge. Make the surface from a material further away from zero on the triboelectric series. More positive would give a higher charge than more negative.

Static electricity tends to be a problem rather than a resource. My thoughts keep coming back to the A380, which has a very fine copper mesh in the outer fibreglass coat (they call it GLARE, but it’s really just fibreglass) to conduct electricity.

“Static dischargers, commonly known as static wicks or static discharge wicks, are installed on the trailing edges of aircraft, including (electrically grounded) ailerons, elevators, rudder, wing, horizontal and vertical stabilizer tips.”

I suppose it would be possible to use the voltage and current in the static wicks to generate usable power. But what current? I can’t tell from the design specs because they also dissipate static electricity from lightning strikes. I may be able to calculate it, I did some triboelectric work for CSIRO but can’t even remember why.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Could an aircraft surface be designed to generate more static discharge?

FWIW it seems that some aircraft tend to attract lightning more than other types. It’s just an anecdote so may well not be true.
The most impressive St Elmos display I’ve ever seen on something that I’ve been flying was in a Piper Aerostar. The tips of the props were ringed in purple fire, with small discharges jumping between the props and closest part of the fuselage.
And then there’s … more St Elmo stuff

More quite possibly useless trivia. Back in the good old days when my father was flying small piston aircraft in PNG, there was a trick they used to pick up small packages from the ground, whilst in flight. No, not a hook and so on, but just a long piece of rope. The pilot would trail the rope from the cockpit window whilst flying in a circle and if everything went about right then the far end of the rope would stay much in the same place on the ground whilst the plane would circle overhead. So then the villages (or whoever) would tie the package, then the pilot would climb away to get the end of the rope off the ground, then when clear stop flying in circles.
I imagine that Wookie would think of using such a system to help get some electrical power from storms …. and it might even work. But I doubt it’d be any better (if it worked at all) than just using a balloon and cable, etc.

Spiny Norman said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Could an aircraft surface be designed to generate more static discharge?

FWIW it seems that some aircraft tend to attract lightning more than other types. It’s just an anecdote so may well not be true.
The most impressive St Elmos display I’ve ever seen on something that I’ve been flying was in a Piper Aerostar. The tips of the props were ringed in purple fire, with small discharges jumping between the props and closest part of the fuselage.
And then there’s … more St Elmo stuff

I’ve seen it with helicopters, at night. Flying above a helicopter at a lower height, you could see a faint/medium ring of blue fire at the edge of the rotor disc.