Wichita State University and WSU Ventures have entered into a new strategic partnership with California-based Lightning Diversion Systems (LDS), a Ducommun Company.
The partnership involves the exclusive licensing of a lightning strike protection system for rotor blades in the wind turbine industry, the product of several years of research and development by LDS and Billy Martin, senior research scientist for WSU’s National Institute for Aviation Research, and his team in NIAR’s Environmental Test Lab.
Lightning strikes are a destructive force in the wind energy industry.
“There are 56,000 turbines in North America alone, and they are all prone to lightning strike,” said Dave Wilmot, vice president and general manager of the Engineered Products Group for Ducommun.
(Read more: KSN-TV)
