Halifax-based Lamda Guard Inc. has been awarded the 2014 Global Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Leadership for its “unrivaled” solution to the problem of laser attacks on aircraft.
Lamda Guard, a subsidiary of Metamaterials Technology Inc., is developing metaAir, a transparent, flexible film that can go over the aircraft windshields to block out laser beams. The shield is necessary because aircraft pilots are increasingly subject to people – from terrorists to pranksters – shining lasers at cockpit windows to blind the crew.
At Entrevestor, we generally don’t report on Atlantic Canadian startups winning awards (because there are simply too many of them), but this award drew our attention because it comes with a super detailed report. Frost & Sullivan, a San Antonio, Texas-based business consultancy for innovative businesses, does a great job of explaining why metaAir has such great potential.
“As a unique participant with an unrivaled solution to improve safety with such simplicity, metaAir could become a standard in the industry and it may become mandatory in the advent of stricter safety regulations,” said the report.
The document establishes the demand for the product, saying that the Federal Bureau of Investigation says that laser attacks on aircraft in the U.S. increased from about 300 incidents in 2003 to nearly 4000 incidents in 2013. It added that the aviation industry – including commercial and military aircraft, private planes, helicopters – doubles every 15 years. And plane makers are always looking for improved safety.
The report says metaAir effectively blocks out laser beams without impairing the visibility of the crew. What’s more, metaAir is easy to install – it is just stuck on to the inside of the cockpit windshield. That means there’s no downtime for the aircraft, and it can be installed in both existing and new planes.
Current anti-laser solutions tend to be standalone products such as eyewear, which can hamper cockpit instrumentation and pilot performance, said Frost & Sullivan.
"Unlike competitors' existing products, which only provide limited and/or temporary protection, the metaAir can be integrated during either aircraft forward-fit or retrofit operations," said the report, written by consultants Thomas Saquer and Alix Leboulanger. "It requires minimal integration costs, as it eliminates complex cockpit conversion, training and additional certification."
The report also praises the human capital of the company led by CEO George Palikaras, a PhD who has developed a metamaterial that uses nanotechnology to filter out, absorb or enhance certain forms of light. It also noted that AirBus, Europe's largest aircraft maker, is working on a multi-year development project with Lamba Guard.
Frost & Sullivan said its Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, innovation, customer service and strategic development.
Entrevestor receives financial support from government agencies that support start-up companies in Atlantic Canada. The sponsoring agencies play no role in determining which companies are featured in this column nor do they have the right to review columns before they are published.
