How Aircraft and Skyscrapers Survive Lightning Strikes

A commercial airliner gets struck by lightning roughly once a year. The Burj Khalifa takes 20-25 strikes annually. Both survive routinely — but through fundamentally different engineering approaches. This episode breaks down the physics of a lightning strike, then walks through how aircraft use Faraday cage principles, composite skin with embedded copper mesh, inerted fuel systems, and zoned protection standards to handle transient hits mid-flight. Then it contrasts that with skyscraper protection: air terminal networks, down conductors, and the critical role of a permanent ground connection. Two solutions to the same problem, shaped entirely by whether the structure can touch the earth. Episode #751899 — open it directly at myweirdprompts.com/751899