[en] Recent advances in direct lightning strike testing have been in lightning attachment test techniques and generator development using a very large Tesla Coil (51 feet wide). Breakthroughs in simulated lightning attachment to small scale replica aircraft models which can be adapted to full size operational aircraft have been made in the past year. New high voltage long arc generator developments have succeeded in producing voltages in excess of 15 million volts and arc lengths in excess of 40 feet. The shortest path from the discharge arc electrode to the model extremity using the long arc does not govern the attachment points to the test specimen as it does when a short arc is used to conduct simulated lightning testing. The system just described may also have application as an ultra-high mega-volt source for particle beam weaponry