C Speed seeks faster growth with its LightWave Radar system

SALINA — C Speed LLC, a Salina–based radar design and development company, recently landed high honors at the December Scottish Green Energy Awards when it won the 2013 Best Innovation Award for its LightWave Radar system to mitigate interference from wind turbines near airports and air fields.

The award comes as the local company is in the process of delivering the first LightWave system, under contract, to the United Kingdom’s Manston Airport in Kent where the system will eliminate “clutter” generated by the Vattenfall 51 megawatt Kentish Flats offshore wind farm.

It was back in 2007 when C Speed first saw opportunity for the LightWave system, says David Lysack, co-founder, president and CEO of C Speed. Current technology couldn’t effectively deal with wind turbines anywhere near an airport or other air field, such as a military base.

The problem, Lysack says, is that the huge turbines, with blades spinning around 150 miles per hour at the tip, confuse traditional radar systems, which send out a signal that bounces back when it encounters anything. The radar will detect the turbines, he says, but there is no way for the radar to know that what it sensed is a wind turbine rather than an aircraft.

“It’s bigger than a 747 spinning in the air,” Lysack says of wind turbines. The result is “clutter” on the radar screen where the radar thinks it is detecting aircraft due to the wind turbines.

Lysack and Justin Louise, his co-founder at C Speed, saw a real opportunity there, he says, to develop a system that could mitigate that clutter. “We kind of started over and designed, from the ground up, a radar system,” he says. That system was LightWave Radar which weeds out the clutter and allows air traffic controllers to accurately monitor the skies.

Here in the United States, Lysack notes, wind-farm clutter is an issue, but not to the degree it is in Europe, where the lack of land mass drives everything into close proximity. “The problem there really came to a crescendo,” he notes.

C Speed worked to develop the LightWave system from 2007 to 2011 and tested the unit in 2011 and 2012. Now, the company is in the process of delivering the system to the airport in Kent and will install the system in the first quarter of this year. By the end of this year, Lysack says he expects to have everything in place to begin offering the LightWave system to other airports.

While he declined to disclose revenue figures, Lysack says he expects revenue growth in 2014 and 2015 to be significantly higher than the 5 percent growth C Speed generated in 2013.

A good portion of that growth will come from the company’s LightWave system, but C Speed also has a robust design-service division that accounts for about half of the company’s current business, Lysack contends.

Through its design services, C Speed’s engineering team provides design solutions for customers, often augmenting a company’s own engineering department. It manufactures those solutions from its 15,000-square-foot, ISO 9001:2008 certified manufacturing facility on Steelway Boulevard in Clay, about a mile away from headquarters.

Markets served include medical, test and measurement, defense, and industrial inspection equipment.

“We have a balanced business,” Lysack says.

Headquartered in about 6,000 square feet at 316 Commerce Blvd., C Speed (www.cspeed.com) employs about 30 people, and Lysack expects that figure to grow as the LightWave system begins to attract more customers.

SALINA — C Speed LLC, a Salina–based radar design and development company, recently landed high honors at the December Scottish Green Energy Awards when it won the 2013 Best Innovation Award for its LightWave Radar system to mitigate interference from wind turbines near airports and air fields.

The award comes as the local company is in the process of delivering the first LightWave system, under contract, to the United Kingdom’s Manston Airport in Kent where the system will eliminate “clutter” generated by the Vattenfall 51 megawatt Kentish Flats offshore wind farm.

It was back in 2007 when C Speed first saw opportunity for the LightWave system, says David Lysack, co-founder, president and CEO of C Speed. Current technology couldn’t effectively deal with wind turbines anywhere near an airport or other air field, such as a military base.

The problem, Lysack says, is that the huge turbines, with blades spinning around 150 miles per hour at the tip, confuse traditional radar systems, which send out a signal that bounces back when it encounters anything. The radar will detect the turbines, he says, but there is no way for the radar to know that what it sensed is a wind turbine rather than an aircraft.

“It’s bigger than a 747 spinning in the air,” Lysack says of wind turbines. The result is “clutter” on the radar screen where the radar thinks it is detecting aircraft due to the wind turbines.

Lysack and Justin Louise, his co-founder at C Speed, saw a real opportunity there, he says, to develop a system that could mitigate that clutter. “We kind of started over and designed, from the ground up, a radar system,” he says. That system was LightWave Radar which weeds out the clutter and allows air traffic controllers to accurately monitor the skies.

Here in the United States, Lysack notes, wind-farm clutter is an issue, but not to the degree it is in Europe, where the lack of land mass drives everything into close proximity. “The problem there really came to a crescendo,” he notes.

C Speed worked to develop the LightWave system from 2007 to 2011 and tested the unit in 2011 and 2012. Now, the company is in the process of delivering the system to the airport in Kent and will install the system in the first quarter of this year. By the end of this year, Lysack says he expects to have everything in place to begin offering the LightWave system to other airports.

While he declined to disclose revenue figures, Lysack says he expects revenue growth in 2014 and 2015 to be significantly higher than the 5 percent growth C Speed generated in 2013.

A good portion of that growth will come from the company’s LightWave system, but C Speed also has a robust design-service division that accounts for about half of the company’s current business, Lysack contends.

Through its design services, C Speed’s engineering team provides design solutions for customers, often augmenting a company’s own engineering department. It manufactures those solutions from its 15,000-square-foot, ISO 9001:2008 certified manufacturing facility on Steelway Boulevard in Clay, about a mile away from headquarters.

Markets served include medical, test and measurement, defense, and industrial inspection equipment.

“We have a balanced business,” Lysack says.

Headquartered in about 6,000 square feet at 316 Commerce Blvd., C Speed (www.cspeed.com) employs about 30 people, and Lysack expects that figure to grow as the LightWave system begins to attract more customers.