I haven't seen any of those recently though, are they still used?
Yep in Boeing's and less so in them flying fiberglass Airbus things.
Carbon fiber not glass
Then Boeing is just as carbon fiber (787) as the Airbus A350, even hit the market before the Airbus.
Then again carbon or aluminium makes no difference, as this refers to the airframe/cell only, which is not held together with safety wire to begin with... it's only used for the mechanical bits you graft onto the airframe. I bet 100 years ago with wood and fabric/clothe aircraft you had safety wires just as well ....
It does make a difference to what happens when lightning strikes. A few decades ago a glider was hit and disintegrated in mid air without casualties. The AAIB inspected it very closely and determined the strike was stronger than believed possible.
As a result, the specification and tests for the upcoming generation of carbon fibre airliners was changed.
Well that's not safety wires on nuts then, you are changing subject !
Yes carbon not good for lighting strikes, but of course Airbus though that. Well, carbon is excellent conductor of course, but since it lives in a plastic matrix, plastic is not so good at conducting of course !
Of course Airbus thought of that... so they made a Faraday cage all over the carbon fuselage : the top / outer most layer of the carbon sandwich that makes up the skin of the A/C, is composed of a bronze mesh that's there to conduct electricity. The A350 has been flying for a few years now, none of them has been destroyed by a lightning ;-)
Older design A/C with an aluminium skin were not exactly lightning strike proof anyway : sure they won't explode or beak up, but the impact still made a hole in the fuselage that needed to be cut out and plugged/patched ! The older the A/C the more patches you would see on the ceiling
As for gliders I don't know, especially decades ago.... I can only speak for the A350, the modern stuff meant to carry paying passengers
If the gliders helped about that cool, but even without it I don't think Airbus wold have made a carbon skin without wondering about lightning strikes... they would have though of it and fixed the problem anyway I would think !