Static dischargers, also called static wicks or static discharge wicks, are devices used to remove

static electricity Static electricity is an imbalance of electric charges within or on the surface of a material or between materials. The charge remains until it is able to move away by means of an electric current or electrical discharge. Static electricity is na ...

from aircraft in flight. They take the form of small sticks pointing backwards from the wings, and are fitted on almost all civilian aircraft.

Function

Precipitation static is an electrical charge on an airplane caused by flying through rain, snow, ice, or dust particles. Charge also accumulates through friction between the aircraft hull and the air. When the aircraft charge is great enough, it discharges into the surrounding air. Without static dischargers, the charge discharges in large batches through pointed aircraft extremities, such as antennas, wing tips, vertical and horizontal stabilizers, and other protrusions. The discharge creates a broad-band radio frequency

noise Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference arise ...

from DC to 1000 MHz, which can affect aircraft communication. To control this discharge, so as to allow the continuous operation of navigation and radio communication systems, static dischargers are installed on the trailing edges of aircraft. These include (electrically grounded)

ailerons An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in Flight dynamics, roll (or ...

elevators An elevator or lift is a cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or decks of a building, vessel, or other structure. They are ...

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally aircraft, air or watercraft, water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to ...

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expres ...

, horizontal and vertical stabilizer tips. Static dischargers are high

electrical resistance The electrical resistance of an object is a measure of its opposition to the flow of electric current. Its reciprocal quantity is , measuring the ease with which an electric current passes. Electrical resistance shares some conceptual parallels ...

(6-200 megaohm) devices with a lower corona voltage and sharper points than the surrounding aircraft structure. This means that the

corona discharge A corona discharge is an electrical discharge caused by the ionization of a fluid such as air surrounding a conductor (material), conductor carrying a high voltage. It represents a local region where the air (or other fluid) has undergone e ...

into the atmosphere flows through them, and occurs gradually. Static dischargers are not

lightning arrestor A lightning arrester (alternative spelling lightning arrestor) (also called lightning isolator) is a device, essentially an air gap between an electric wire and ground, used on electric power transmission and telecommunication systems to protect ...

s and do not affect the likelihood of an aircraft being struck by lightning. They will not function if they are not properly bonded to the aircraft. There must be a conductive path from all parts of the airplane to the dischargers, otherwise they will be useless. Access panels, doors, cowls, navigation lights, antenna mounting hardware, control surfaces, etc., can create static noise if they cannot discharge through the static wick.

History

The first static dischargers were developed by a joint Army-Navy team led by Dr. Ross Gunn of the

Naval Research Laboratory The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. It was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, applied research, technological ...

and fitted onto military aircraft during World War II. They were shown to be effective even in

extreme weather Extreme weather or extreme climate events includes unexpected, unusual, severe, or unseasonal weather; weather at the extremes of the historical distribution—the range that has been seen in the past. Often, extreme events are based on a locat ...

conditions in 1946 by a

United States Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical r ...

team led by Capt. Ernest Lynn Cleveland. Dayton Granger, an inventor from Florida, received a patent on static wicks in 1950.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Static Discharger Electrical engineering Electrodes

Function

History

See also

References