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Bart Reijnen, CEO of Satair, and George Palikaras, founder and CEO of MTI, sign the distribution agreement at MRO Europe.Bart Reijnen, CEO of Satair, and George Palikaras, founder and CEO of MTI, sign the distribution agreement at MRO Europe.

Satair and Metamaterial sign deal to bring laser strike protection to global aviation market

Metamaterial Technologies Inc. Press Release | October 17, 2018

Estimated reading time 3 minutes, 28 seconds.

Satair and Metamaterial Technologies Inc. (MTI) and its optical filters division Lamda Guard of Halifax, Nova Scotia, have signed at the MRO Europe exhibition an exclusive global multi-million-dollar distribution agreement to bring MTI’s metaAIR laser glare protection eyewear and visors to all aviation and military markets.

Bart Reijnen, CEO of Satair, and George Palikaras, founder and CEO of MTI, sign the distribution agreement at MRO Europe. Metamaterial Technologies Photo

The products covered are eyewear and visors and are applicable to the full range of pilots – commercial, military fixed- and rotary-wing, and covering a multitude of operations such as commercial and business aviation, military, search-and-rescue, police and medevac. The technology is superior to other products currently on the market due to a unique and patented dielectric (non-metallic) optical metamaterial filter, which has been scientifically engineered to ensure that the pilots’ vision and interpretation of the surrounding environment is not disturbed during critical phases of flight.

Laser strikes on aircraft and helicopters have risen over the years and laser pointers are increasing in power and decreasing in price. Lasers can distract and even harm pilots during critical phases of flight and can cause temporary visual impairment. Over 6,750 laser incidents were recorded in the USA in 2017 according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In 2016 there were over 1,750 laser incidents reported to the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority and Transport Canada Civil Aviation.

The introduction of these new products will bring enhanced safety to pilots globally, answering the need to address a rising threat to pilot safety, income and to passenger safety/airline operational continuity.

Signing the distribution agreement on Oct. 17, George Palikaras, MTI Founder and CEO, said: “Today marks a key milestone for MTI. We have worked closely with Satair since signing our initial MoU in June 2017 and which has led to today’s agreement for our eyewear, and visor products. We are very pleased to have Satair as our exclusive distributor.

“Through our partnership with Satair we will introduce our products to not just the commercial aviation market originally envisaged, but to service the growing needs of a much wider market to offer a solution to the increasing threats of laser strikes in global fixed-wing and rotary-wing aviation, law enforcement and defense.”

Satair is moving this relationship to commercialization and will deploy its global presence and extended distribution and parts support services to all commercial aviation and defense market segments with metaAIR eyewear and visors products.

Bart Reijnen of Satair added: “This deal is very unique in the sense that through a combined Airbus effort we have brought a start-up company to production maturity. We have utilized cross-functional resources internally in Airbus to bring MTI to this stage. Departments such as Start-up-2-Partner within Corporate Innovation, Airbus Aircraft Security, Airbus Defence and Space and Satair have all taken responsibility as project sponsors. The result is the signature of today’s distribution agreement.”

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