National Research Council of Canada

About member

The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) is Canada’s largest federal research and development organization.

The NRC partners with Canadian industry to take research impacts from the lab to the marketplace, where people can experience the benefits. This market-driven focus delivers innovation faster, enhances people’s lives and addresses some of the world’s most pressing problems. We are responsive, creative and uniquely placed to partner with Canadian industry, to invest in strategic R&D programming that will address critical issues for our future.

Each year our scientists, engineers and business experts work closely with thousands of Canadian firms, helping them bring new technologies to market. We have the people, expertise, services, licensing opportunities, national facilities and global networks to support Canadian businesses.

The NRC is a founding member of the Canadian Advanced Air Mobility Consortium and are proud to create the future of flight together in partnership with them.

Integrated Air Mobility Program

New aerospace products have to go through full scale demonstrations and meet stringent safety regulations before they become a commercial success. Unmanned Aircraft Systems are no exceptions and face certain technological, operational and regulatory barriers that have to be overcome before they become a reality. NRC is well recognized of its multi-disciplinary expertise and holds a reputation of skilled and well equipped partner of choice with an experience of demonstrating large scale aerospace products. As such, NRC is well positioned to address the above mentioned barriers, advancing key niche technologies to accelerate their adoption, certification and commercialization.  In pursuance of its strategic focus, Aerospace Research Center (ARC) is taking a leadership role in stimulating the UAS eco-system in Canada with support from other NRC Research Centers and NRC IRAP.

ARC has launched a seven-year transformational R&D program titled Integrated Aerial Mobility (I AM) to unlock the potential of UAS in Canada.  The program aims to realize this outcome through the achievement of the following objectives:

  • Develop, support and scale up critical technologies and qualify them through full scale demonstrations in both virtual and physical domains
  • stimulate the establishment of a sustainable autonomous on-demand UAS industry in Canada through a stronger supply chain
  • provide knowledge-based support to Transport Canada to enable increased complexity operations of UAS in Canadian airspace

 

More information about the IAM program: https://nrc.canada.ca/en/research-development/research-collaboration/programs/integrated-aerial-mobility-program.

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Projects

Canadian Advanced Air Mobility Master Plan

The Opportunity 

It is unreasonable for private industry, research institutions, governments and regulators to self-assemble themselves into any form that could resemble a global aerospace leader within the predicted $318 billion USD Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) sector. The solution to this challenge is structuring a unified Canadian AAM Master Plan.  The Master Plan will leverage Canadian Advanced Air Mobility Consortium (CAAM) as the unified national voice for the new Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) sector in Canada.  AAM will bring about transformation in a number of industries (human transportation, emergency response, cargo/package logistics ect) and also holds the potential to rewrite an entire industry’s management of environmental and social needs. The opportunity for Canada in crafting the AAM Master Plan is to align, structure and communicate how AAM will be integrated into the existing air and land resources in Canada.

Project Overview

Phase 1 - 20 Year AAM National Roadmap Phase 1 is designed to organize and deliver a strategic roadmap for AAM focused on the next 20 years. It will address factors such as safety, regulations, scalability, flexibility and resilience. Environmental responsibility and societal acceptance will be considered from end to end. The three goals are:
  • Define the unifying national AAM vision for Canada
  • Identify gaps & barriers in accomplishing the vision
  • Create the national AAM implementation Roadmap & Master Plan
Phase 2 - Regional Implementation Strategies Phase 2 will apply the Master Plan to initial AAM operational markets in Canada, specifically Vancouver & Toronto. Phase 2 is designed to de-risk AAM operations, coordinate business planning, and expedite technology integration required to activate revenue generating use cases. In conjunction with the ongoing Vancouver and Toronto AAM projects, the goals for Phase 2 are to:
  • Design airspace structure, flight routes, physical infrastructure maps and noise footprints for urban and rural operations
  • Develop Concept of Operations (CONOPS) for specific AAM use cases and integration with RPAS Traffic Management (RTM)
If done correctly, Phase 1 and 2 together will provide considerable learnings and insights for governments, regulators and industry to prepare for this new industry and offer insight for larger markets around the world to do the same.

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Next Generation AAM Manufacturing: Cluster Building

The Opportunity

Canada is privileged to be home to the leading aerospace and automotive manufacturing companies worldwide. The emerging Advanced Air Mobility sector will bring Canada’s conventional expertise in both the automotive and aerospace industries in direct alignment with manufacturing the zero emissions aircraft of the future. From prototyping to full scale production, Canada possesses the experience and capacity to bring the Advanced Air Mobility sector to life safely and quickly. The Canadian Advanced Air Mobility Consortium (CAAM) is the unified national voice for the new Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) sector in Canada.  This Next Generation AAM Manufacturing | Auto + Aero project is designed to create a cluster of innovative manufacturing companies to supply aircraft, parts and services to the new AAM industry. Not only will this create new jobs for an already skilled manufacturing workforce, the lessons gained here can be exported to markets globally.

Project Overview

Launching the Auto+Aero cluster will enable the existing Canadian manufacturing industry to innovate the application of the skills they already possess by executing the following goals:
  • Integrating best practices from both Aerospace and Automotive manufacturing sectors 
  • Designing manufacturing technology, processes, and products for the AAM industry
This new  cluster will fuse the expertise of Canada’s existing automotive sector with our aerospace industry in manufacturing and operating these new zero emission aircraft in Canada. The cluster will accomplish the following key milestones within the scope of this initial project:
  • Launch the Auto + Aero Cluster:
  • Build a strategic 20 Year roadmap for manufacturing in Canada
  • Integrate insight with APMA Project Aero 2.0

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Each of our members have committed to building the future of Advanced Air Mobility. We're committed to helping all of them work together to get there safely.

JR Hammond

Executive Director

Canadian Advanced Air Mobility

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