NTT creates a drone that triggers and catches lightning
Japanese tech conglomerate NTT has created a drone that triggers lightning, is then struck by a heavenly bolt it instigated, and survives the experience – all in the name of preventing damage from natural lightning.
As described in a recent announcement, NTT flew a test drone in December 2024 and January 2025 and created what it claims was the first drone-triggered lightning. The drone did so during a thunderstorm when it was flown to an altitude of 300 meters.
The test craft is no ordinary drone as it is equipped with a protective cage and trails a conductive wire connected to a winch and a switch on the ground. According to NTT, “before the lightning strike, it was confirmed that a voltage of over 2000 volts had developed between the wire and the ground.”
“This rapid increase in local electric field strength triggered a lightning strike directed at the drone,” NTT’s announcement states.
“At the moment of the strike, a loud cracking sound was heard, a flash was observed at the winch, and partial melting occurred in the drone’s lightning protection cage,” NTT wrote. But the drone survived and “continued to fly stably even after the lightning strike.”
NTT’s lightning proof drone – Click to enlarge
It was able to do so because the cage “redirects the high current from the lightning strike away from the drone’s internal components, preventing it from flowing through the drone itself.” It’s also “designed to distribute the lightning current radially, which cancels out the strong magnetic fields generated by the current and minimizes electromagnetic interference.”
Best of all, the cage can be fitted to commercially available drones.
The company also thinks its drones are a better defense than lightning rods, because they can be used in more locations.
NTT therefore imagines a day when fleets of these drones fly over the world’s cities so they can trigger lightning during storms before natural bolts strike critical infrastructure. The company has seen estimates that lightning causes ¥100 billion to ¥200 billion ($700 million to $1.4 billion) of damage each year in Japan alone and hopes it can completely eliminate strikes on infrastructure and urban areas.
Good luck with that, NTT, because your correspondent drove through a lightning storm on Monday and was stunned to learn it generated over 878,000 lightning strikes. Granted, not all were near the infrastructure and urban areas NTT hopes to protect, but big cities cover a lot of land and critical infrastructure can sometimes be way out in the suburbs – as we discovered when a substation fire closed London’s Heathrow Airport. ®
