
- 16 Dec 2024 12:22 PM
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Canadian AAM Update
By Kenneth I. Swartz
Fall is aviation conference season in Canada and an opportunity for professionals to learn about the latest industry developments and to plan collaboration before the winter snow. In October–November 2024, the author attended six events in the provinces of British Columbia and Ontario, providing excellent insights into current and future vertical flight operations. Helicopter-related news was covered in “Canadian Vertical Flight Update,” Vertiflite, Jan/Feb 2025, while this online-only supplement covers recent developments in advanced air mobility (AAM).

INSAT Awards First Funding
At the Canadian Aerospace Summit in early November, the Initiative for Sustainable Aviation Technology (INSAT) announced its first funding awards for engineering programs in Canada that will receive funding to support decarbonization of the aerospace industry and the aviation sector through new technologies.
The funding criteria for projects requires that they contribute to net-zero-emission aviation, have a realistic path to commercialization, result in an increase in technology readiness level (TRL) by at least one step (from no lower than TRL 3). The projects must involve at least one small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME), and the intellectual property generated must be exploited in Canada for at least five years.
INSAT will fund up to one-third of eligible costs, up to C$7M per project. The maximum project duration is three years.
Many of the electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) and AAM programs with a footprint in Canada may qualify for some INSAT funding. In the future, INSAT plans to expand the scope of the program to include international collaborations.
The results of the first funding round were announced on Nov. 6. The Government of Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund will contribute C$28M through INSAT to five projects that will receive C$101M in total funding. These initial awards were for aircraft and propulsion-system programs.
Vancouver-based Harbour Air received funding for its electric DHC-2 Beaver program and partnered with Elevate Aviation, which will develop electric aviation technology courses targeted at youth aged 11–18 to build a talent pipeline.
BC-based companies Ballard Power Systems, Inc. and Hydrogen In Motion, Inc. received funding to develop a fuel-cell stack with an integrated solid-state hydrogen storage system for aviation applications.
Duxion Motors, Inc. and Tronosjet Maintenance, Inc. are collaborating on ground testing of an experimental single-engine, single-seat “electric jet” aircraft powered by batteries and Duxion’s 250kW eJet motor. Tronosjet is a regional aircraft MRO facility based on Prince Edward Island. Duxion is based in Newfoundland and is developing scalable electric fan engines for electric aircraft.
Quebec-based Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) and Ontario-based Derivation Research Laboratory received funding to explore advanced materials for hot-section components of gas turbine engines, which will help to improve thermal efficiency and reduce fuel consumption and emissions.
P&WC and Next Hydrogen Solutions, Inc. received support to undertake a Hydrogen ADvanced Engine Study (HyADES) that will demonstrate hydrogen combustion technology on a PW127XT regional turboprop engine.
The Canadian government had announced in June 2023 that it planned an investment of C$350M in support of INSAT over several years, with the goal of accelerating the green industrial transformation of the aerospace industry.
H2CanFly
Canada has launched a national initiative to accelerate the commercialization of hydrogen-propulsion aircraft towards a “net-zero” future. H2CanFly (“H2CanadaEnVol” in French) is a not-for-profit, pan-Canadian consortium bringing together key stakeholders from industry, academia and government to define and execute a comprehensive strategy to achieve critical environmental and economic objectives for Canada.
H2CanFly is backed by aerospace sector leaders, including Airbus, CAE, the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), Redrock Power Systems, Tronosjet and Unither Bioelectronics.
The two founding members — Prince Edward Island-based companies Tronosjet and Redrock Power Systems — together with the NRC, identified a gap in hydrogen aviation initiatives in Canada. This led to the creation of the consortium to fast-track the commercialization of strategic enabling technologies that reduce climate impact and strengthen Canada’s position as a global leader in sustainable aviation solutions.
Airbus is well-known for its interest in hydrogen aviation, while Unither Bioelectronics announced at the VFS Forum 80 in Montréal that it was testing a hydrogen-electric powered Robinson R44 in Bromont, Quebec.
One of the flagships projects will be the development of a hydrogen-propulsion research aircraft based on the four-engine British Aerospace BAe 146 regional jet, which will help support the development of non-conventional hydrogen and electrification technologies, requisite airport infrastructure and essential certification pathways.
“The support has been overwhelming,” said Niloofar Moradi, a strategy and business development manager at NRC assigned to H2CanFly. “It has been very positively received by the entire industry. And we are really hoping to build on this momentum, and we are hoping that together we can achieve great things.”
H2CanFly will support the development of existing and future airborne systems, such as AAM and eVTOL aircraft, remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS), airships and next-generation concepts, such as blended-wing-body and truss-braced wing aircraft.
Canadian Electric Trainers
There has been plenty of other recent progress with Canadian electric aviation programs as well. VFS attended the Air Transport Association of Canada (ATAC) convention in Vancouver, and the third annual Waterloo Sustainable Aeronautics Summit in Waterloo, Ontario, which provided an opportunity to hear from leading innovators.
On June 14, Sealand Flight, Ltd. of Campbell River, BC, made Canada’s first commercial electric flight when the flight school took its first paid customer for an introductory flight lesson in a Pipistrel Velis Electro trainer.
The flight was made as part of a trial program hatched by Transport Canada in 2019 and saw a formal call for proposals in 2022 from flight schools to operate an electric Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) in a pilot training environment. Rather than the traditional approach of drafting rules with limited industry consultation, Transport Canada opted for a parallel approach. One stream was initiating a “sandbox” trial to learn more about electric aircraft under a wide range of conditions, while another stream was working to validate the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) CS-LSA Light Sport Aeroplanes certification — since Canadian LSA regulations don't align with them — as well as the unique aspects of certifying electric powerplants.
The Waterloo Institute of Sustainable Aviation (WISA) became a partner with Transport Canada and two flight schools in the trial to gather the operational and training data required to support evidence-based rulemaking, as well as publishing its data for the benefit of the entire electric aviation industry.
WISA partnered with the Waterloo Wellington Flight Centre (WWFC) to buy two Velis Electro trainers for research and flight instruction, making the first flight on June 9, 2023. Over the past 18 months, the aircraft have been evaluated by Transport Canada, with inspectors who have gone through all the exercises for a private pilot’s licence (PPL) and followed by Waterloo instructors conducting additional tests to assess its training capabilities and identify any pitfalls. Student training will commence soon, utilizing a second charger installed at Brandford Airport, 23 miles (37 km) from Waterloo Airport.
Sealand received its first Velis Electro from Pipistrel’s Canadian distributor, Apex Aircraft, on Feb. 18, 2024, and also is sharing its flight data with WISA.
Thus, three Pipistrel Velis Electro trainers are now in Canada to gather data for Transport Canada. Note that in March 2024, commercial electric flight training also began in the US, after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) granted a light sport aircraft (LSA) airworthiness exemption for the Velis Electro.
Meanwhile, in Montréal, Québec, pilot training leader CAE is developing a supplemental type certificate (STC) retrofit for the Piper PA-28 Archer and plans to convert many of its ab initio flight training aircraft to electric power to reduce its carbon footprint. CAE operates a fleet of more than 200 Piper, Cessna and Diamond training aircraft at fully owned, franchised and joint-venture training facilities. The company plans to convert part of it 60 Archer fleet in Mesa, Arizona, to electric motors.

CAE conducts its pilot training on behalf of major airline customers, so they needed to get the buy-in from their ultimate customer and confirm that the training on electric aircraft would not take any longer and that the maintenance costs will be the same or lower.
CAE partners on the project include Piper, engine-maker Safran, battery solution supplier H55, Elisen, NRC and the University of Sherbrooke. The batteries on the aircraft are being placed in the wings, the engine compartment and in the aft-seat area where passengers used to sit.

The program was launched at the Farnborough Air Show in 2022 and has followed a standard engineering process, with CAE now in the detailed design. Cert Centre Canada will conduct the flight test program on the electric PA-28 Archer at Montreal Metropolitan Airport (previously St. Hubert Airport) with first flight expected in 2025. Transport Canada and FAA certification is expected in about 2027.
For more on Canadian AAM activities, check out the Vertical Flight Society’s 90-minute video recording of WISA’s 3rd Annual Sustainable Aeronautics Summit, held on Nov. 19: www.youtube.com/VTOLsociety.
About the Author
Ken Swartz is a senior aerospace marketing and communications strategist, running Aeromedia Consultants. A long-time consultant to the aviation, aerospace and vertical flight industry, he’s held management positions in the regional airline, helicopter and aircraft manufacturing industries for 30+ years, and has reported on vertical flight since 1978. In 2010, he received the Vertical Aviation International “Communicator of the Year” award. He can be reached at kennethswartz@me.com.
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