[jws]

Fermi estimation says…

The internet says the energy of a cloud to earth lightning strike is 10^9 joules. A gallon of jet fuel contains about 10^8 joules of energy. A strike would provide the equivalent of 10 gallons of fuel.

A 737 would need to be struck at least once every 10 miles to keep going.

Sadly, that lightning power number is for cloud to earth, a cloud to airplane is going to be far less. If you try to extract too much power from the bolt it will just go around you.

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Meta comment: I like the breadth of this comment's peers. We have this one about the scale of energy, one commenting that it doesn't help range because you can't rely on it, one about the disparity of power between charging and discharging, and one about avoiding complexity and mass in airplanes. All good points. I hope in 12 months we hear back from the lunatic that ignores them and makes a functioning prototype.