US Patent Issued to TEXTRON INNOVATIONS on Oct. 14 for "Bonding tab assemblies providing lightning strike protection for composite aircraft propellers" (Kansas Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,441,485, issued on Oct. 14, was assigned to TEXTRON INNOVATIONS INC. (Providence, R.I.).

"Bonding tab assemblies providing lightning strike protection for composite aircraft propellers" was invented by Gregory Williamson (Wichita, Kan.), Brian Cozine (Wichita, Kan.) and Amber Whittaker (Wichita, Kan.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Lightning strike protection for composite propellers is provided by a bonding tab assembly which is electrically bonded to an electrically conductive protective band fixed to a leading edge of the composite propeller blade. The bonding tab establishes an electrically conductive path for a lightning strike on th...