Interesting feature there Richard,just a quick explanation here about their purpose for those that are curious,the static discharge 'wicks' are placed at strategic points of the aircrafts structure namely the trailing edges of flying control surfaces such as ailerons,elevator,rudder etc,these serve the purpose of releasing the build up of static in the aircrafts structure whilst in flight,this is also done wholesale as well via the graphite content in the tyres when the machine lands but in flight there has to be a constant release of static build up,static is not only the cause of radio interferance but can be dangerous as well if it builds up,to avoid the build up every part of the airframe is bonded,this means that the important parts are not isolated and thus act as storage compartments for the static electricity,through the complex chain the static travels until it emits out of those funny little wicks,they are made from braided thin wire and usually these days have a plastic coating except the very end which gets quite tatty,this can be trimmed during maintenance and once they get too worn are replaced.
When I was involved with aircraft engineering, we had numerous lightning strikes to our aircraft,this was nearly always on the top of the tail fin and took the form of a burn mark,there have been some serious cases of lightning bringing down aircraft over the years,it usually blows every electric circuit just as it can do on the ground to houses etc,most frightening if you happen to be up there in an electric storm.
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