Lightning Certification, Reimagined: Simulation, Test, and Automation Under One Roof
Topic:
Lightning Certification, Reimagined: Simulation, Test, and Automation Under One Roof
Presenter:
Tim McDonald, EMA Co-CEO
Abstract:
Lightning certification has traditionally meant waiting until late in a program to find out whether an airframe meets its requirements. EMA is changing that timeline. Our portable lightning test capability travels to your facility, injecting the key waveforms called out in the governing airworthiness standards at low level directly into your airframe, giving you certification-relevant data on your schedule rather than a test range’s.
But test is only the first step. Airframers need to know the lightning transients at safety-critical interfaces much earlier, while design decisions are still cheap to change. EMA’s simulation tools predict those lightning levels well before hardware exists, and critically, we validate that simulation against your actual airframe (not a generic model), which is what certification credit requires. Once validated, that simulation becomes a tool you can use for both indirect effects (lightning’s impact on electronics) and direct effects, including fuel tank ignition requirements, where EMA’s dedicated ignition detection hardware identifies the certification level on your program.
Put together, this is what it means for EMA to act as your virtual E3 team: certification expertise, design expertise, simulation expertise, test expertise, and the equipment, software, and compute to back it all up, functioning as an extension of your own engineering team. And because EMA now builds on MCP APIs, we’re the first E3 team that can automate your recurring workflows, simulation, data analysis, design review, so your process gets more efficient with every program, not just this one.
