This project was a 2-year (2020-2022) collaborative project between 2 professors (led by Professor Daniel Therriault) of Polytechnique Montreal and Bell Textron Canada, and financially supported by the industrial partner and NSERC (Alliance Program). This project investigated two lightweight lightning strike protection (LSP) systems tailored to the needs of duct fans of the vertical take- off air taxis that Bell Textron Canada is currently developing. The main outcomes of this project were (1) the demonstration of the protection performance of a lightweight coating and (2) a detailed investigation of the effect of paint. We were able to provide to Bell Textron very promising coating alternatives (e.g., non-woven nickel-coated carbon fibers) to replace copper meshes for their future aircraft. The LSP coatings were integrated on the carbon-fiber reinforced composite panels and their efficiency as LSP solution was tested by a LS emulator developed at Polytechnique Montreal with a 40-kA peak current. The company is planning to continue the investigation on larger scale structures and potentially perform full-power certification tests.