The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) announced that it will partner with Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) maker, Brican Flight Systems.As part of the agreement, the NRC has chosen the Brampton-based firm’s TD100 fixed wing UAS as its ‘platform of choice’ for its Civilian Unmanned Aircraft Systems programme (CivUAS), an initiative to accelerate the development and improve the adoption of UAS for civilian use over Canadian domestic airspace.
According to the company, Brican will work with NRC’s aerospace engineers over the next five years to solve specific UAS technical issues, such as flight safety, sense-and-avoid technologies, anti-icing, flight operation interfaces and data collection. Presently, the TD100 is going through a commercialisation programme to demonstrate the safety and value of remotely piloted aircraft systems for use in hazardous and remote environments.
The company says that commercial UAS represent a cost-effective way to perform certain tasks such as inspecting remote stretches of power transmission lines, pipelines and other infrastructure that traverse vast areas of open territory. With a max payload capacity of 9kg (20 lbs.), the TD100 can be equipped with HD and infra-red video and mega-pixel still frame cameras to collect data during automated patrols over remote area.
“Our partnership with CivUAS marks a milestone in Canadian aviation history,” said Brian McLuckie, President of Brican. ‘With the resources and support of the National Research Council behind us we can, together with our sensor partners, refine and qualify aircraft systems to meet commercial flight safety standards and integrate Canadian sensor technologies to meet the needs of organizations who rely on remote data acquisition. Through current advancements and the miniaturization of sensors, these systems operated by professional crews on the ground can do an outstanding job of gathering valuable data while reducing the risks to field personnel and lowering manpower costs.”
Source: Canadian Manufacturing
This is an interesting cooperation of a governmental department and a company. I’m looking forward to what it produces. It’s definitely profitably for both of them, but I’m a bit critical because perhaps this technology will be used in the military sector.
Thanks a lot for this information!