alt Hacker NewsWow, getting a drone to survive the massive electromagnetic fields (and plasma!) around lightning strikes is quite an accomplishment. Prior art in the area used rockets trailing a similar light wire to trigger lightning - used by Dr Uman's team at University of Florida (https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UFE0047331/00001).
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And the prior art before that involved a kite and a key
Made me think of 'State of Fear' from Michael Crichton, and the whole deep-down paranoid trip this book was.
Rockets triggering lighting with wire has been since the late 50's (M. M. Newman), what's cool about the drone is you can send back data before the strike. Obviously a kite or aerostat would work as well.
I'm sure someone in the 90's was using rockets without wires, the exhaust from the rocket made the trail. I cannot source it.
These guys charging cars shows they are not really serious, but a lot of forest fires are lightning, it's a worthy thing to control if possible.
Aren’t lighting strikes on aircraft a pretty common occurrence and even without that the charge on the skin of an aircraft flying through the air is quite substantial.