At our latitudes, aircraft on regular flights are struck on the average once every 1000 flight hours. This phenomenon is catered for in the aircraft design, whose composite structure does not provide sufficient shielding, in order to protect the electrical flight controls and equipment.

Scientists study the phenomenology of foudre and the conditions under which a discharge is triggered by the aircraft. In addition, numerical models solving the Maxwell equations predict current distribution on the aircraft and the electromagnetic stresses on internal equipment.