Design Services

We offer consultation services in aircraft conceptual design and optimization, aerodynamic analysis, rotor and propeller performance prediction, electrification, and everything in between.

RPAS Design & Operations

We have extensive experience in designing, building, and deploying remotely-piloted and autonomous electric aircraft. Our design methodology utilizes our expertise in applied aerodynamics, optimization, systems integration and testing, and composites construction. Our operational experience includes both fixed-wing and multirotor systems. We are RPAS-certified operators through Transport Canada, and MAAC-licensed R/C pilots.

A deep neural network, trained in-house, being applied to an aerial image to identify property boundaries, roads, and other human-made features.

Data Processing & Analysis

One of our core competencies is processing, identifying, and analyzing key features in the data collected from payload sensors, both in real-time and post-flight. A major strength to our team is our split background in both RPAS operations and data science, which is why our company operates where these two worlds overlap. Through our own operations, we have hands-on experience in developing sensor and vision-based AI and deep-learning pipelines for object detection and tracking, localization, and path-planning. Several members of our team have experience in self-driving car software architecture, which provides additional background in the fields of computer vision and sensor fusion.

Flight Test Engineering

Our experience in flight-testing RPAS prototype designs comes from our need to quantify, analyze, and improve on the performance of a design. We use flight testing as a way of quantifying the difference between the simulated and real-world performance of the aircraft, in order to improve both the aircraft and the tools that we used to design it. Our approach to flight test planning comes from years of experience, focusing on everything from the broader goals of the testing down to the individual necessary maneuvers, safety concerns, and contingencies due to weather or other operational concerns.

A simulation of a glider wing and horizontal stabilizer in flight.

Aircraft Analysis & Optimization

Our team has a collective background in aircraft design and applied aerodynamics, with additional specialization in structural dynamics, flight dynamics, stability analysis, and multi-objective optimization. Our team members have used their tools and experience to design, analyze, and build clean-sheet remotely-piloted aircraft systems for over a decade. Our design approach typically uses both hands-on and optimization-based methods, depending on the design objectives and timeline.

Wake simulation of a quadcopter taking off.

Rotor Analysis

One of the core research areas for this group over the past five years has been rotor analysis and performance prediction. We have developed our own in-house software and have applied it alongside wind-tunnel testing in order to analyze integrated rotor loads, as well as more complex areas such as transient advancing-retreating blade effects and vortex ring state. We have conducted studies that have quantified the efficiencies of various multirotor flight configurations, and are regularly carrying out flight tests with multirotor vehicles to test experimental designs and to identify areas where improvements in efficiency are possible.

Systems Integration & Testing

Due to our focus on reliability, component and systems testing and integration plays a large role in our design methodology. We make extensive use of failure mode and effects analysis in conjunction with ground-based long-duration component testing, wind-tunnel analysis, systems integration testing, and software and hardware in-the-loop testing. An understanding of the benefits and drawbacks to modularity in aircraft systems design has also informed how we approach systems integration, with the end-goal being a reliable and efficient system that is as functional, maintainable, and extensible as possible.

System Electrification

Our work on the CREATeV and SW-96 RPAS programs have illustrated some of the benefits of electrification in aircraft design. In addition to being cleaner, quieter, and easier to maintain, an electric aircraft can also achieve performance metrics that are impossible for combustion-powered alternatives. Advances in solar and battery technologies have allowed us to push the boundaries of aircraft performance through our designs, and we are determined to stay at the forefront of electrification in order to continue expanding that frontier. In addition to electric powertrains, solar-charging, and innovative battery technologies, we are also interested in pursuing projects based around hydrogen fuel cells and other clean technologies.