What inspired you to pursue your dream of being an astronaut?
I first got interested in space when I was just a little girl. My dad remembers me asking questions about space and Mars. Our best guess as to what sparked my interest is an episode of The Backyardigans. This was a TV show I used to watch as a kid which had a Mission to Mars episode. This is the only situation we can think of where I would have heard the word space. The more I learned about space later, the more I loved it.
What has been your favourite part of aerospace training?
I’ve loved all the hands-on experience I’ve been able to get in my life — from working with space suits, floating in microgravity, learning about water survival, and much more. One of the best experiences I’ve had was when I got to fly a fighter jet as part of
the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. During this flight, I could pull 9.1 Gs, equivalent to nine times my body weight pushing down on me with pressure. It was surreal.
What’s your impression of Canada’s role in the future of aerospace and aviation?
I think Canada has a large role in the future of aerospace and aviation. I’ve completed a microgravity campaign at the National Research Council Canada (NRC). I also did gravity-offset training with space suits at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). From my experiences, Canada has played a major role in research and facilities. I’m excited to see the next steps for Canada in the space industry.
What advice can you offer to women and young girls interested in the industry? Women or young girls interested in the space industry should 100 per cent pursue it. It’s
Asuch an exciting time with so many opportunities for young women. If you’ve found an interest, follow your dreams, and never let anyone take your dreams away. Tell people about what you’re inter ested in doing because the industry is always looking for more girls who are passionate. Although space can seem male-dominated, the women working in the space industry are welcoming and inspiring.
Will you be taking a trip to Mars any time soon?
The current plans are to start going to Mars in the early 2030s. Of course, this time frame could change, but hopefully, that’s when we will see the first humans travel to Mars.
Aviation and Aerospace: Our Keys to Economic Recovery
s the economy continues to reel from COVID-19 and recession approaches, a major part of the solution to our challenges lies with Canada’s aviation industry.
“Not quite dead yet.” — This could be the mantra of Canada’s aviation sector after surviving traffic declines of as much as 87 per cent over the past two years. But air transportation faces serious headwinds as it struggles to recover.
That’s very easy to understand. However, the effect this has on our economy is often forgotten in the discussion. Air transportation is the most powerful socio-economic development infrastructure there is. Where aviation goes, the economy follows.
For example, Canada’s second largest airport, Vancouver International, pre-COVID-19,
Dave Frank
contributed over $10 billion to Canada’s GDP — twice that of our largest port.
In addition to providing raw economic horsepower, imagine where our air ambulance, fire suppression, emergency response, and remote and Indigenous services would be without a robust aviation infrastructure.
Fees and excessive regulations
Despite being the keystones to socio-economic growth, the industry is buried under fees and excessive regulations. Instead of viewing aviation as a critical enhancer of our economy, it’s viewed by the government as a cash cow.
We need to turn this thinking around: air transportation is a vital investment.
There’s much that can be done immediately to address this:
• Formally recognize the aviation system
as a critical infrastructure for socio-economic development.
• Fees collected for security, international travel, and others must directly go toward the organization they were collected for — and not as federal government general revenues.
• Freeze airport rents collected by the federal government.
• Fund and deliver Transport Canada services at world-class levels.
• Triple the funding for the Airport Capital Assistance Program and expand eligibility to include airports without scheduled passenger service.
These would be welcome first steps toward unleashing the power of our aviation industry to the benefit of all Canadians.
Dave Frank Executive Director, British Columbia Aviation Council
Follow Alyssa Carson on Instagram @nasablueberry
How Montreal Keeps the World Flying: 75 Years of Rolls-Royce Canada Aerospace
The most prestigious business jets the world over rely on Rolls-Royce engines to power them through the skies. And, for 75 years, those engines have relied on Montreal’s world-class repair and overhaul facility to keep them in top shape.
D.F. McCourt
There are few names as thoroughly associated with quality in the collective lexicon as Rolls-Royce. Though the brand may first spring to mind as the pinnacle of the luxury automobile, the lasting legacy of Rolls-Royce today is in the skies as one of the world’s leading manufacturers of aircraft engines. From their U.K. roots, Rolls-Royce now powers airplanes the world over. And when those engines need service, airlines and private jet owners can rely on the international presence of Rolls-Royce repair and overhaul facilities. Outside of the United Kingdom, one of the most experienced such facilities is found right here in Canada.
“We’ve been in Montreal since 1947,” says Denis Giangi, President of Rolls-Royce Canada Limited. “Montreal is our main aerospace hub, but we also have a marine facility in the City of Peterborough, Ont. And in the City of Thompson, Man., we have a state-of-the-art ice testing facility called GLACIER. Thompson is one of the coldest places in the world, and the great thing about Canada is that we don’t have to create a facility to simulate these extreme conditions when we have them available naturally. It’s a rich history we have here in Canada.”
From RCAF to Beverly Hills
In the late 1940s and the 1950s, Rolls-Royce Canada primarily provided maintenance for customers like the Canadian Air Force.
As they celebrate this year their 75th anniversary in the country, however, they have seen their customer base and their scope of work expand dramatically. “Today, we have a very successful and diversified aerospace repair and overhaul business, supporting over 600 aircraft operators in over 30 countries all around the world,” says Giangi. “Looking at our customer base, its airlines, corporate operators, private jet owners, and even some very famous Hollywood stars. Our mandate has gotten much broader, especially in terms of high technology. We get to work on the latest
technology and more efficient engines now than we did back in the 1950s. The name of the game for us is that we feel that we can offer the best engines in the world and also all the support services.”
The main engines that the Montreal facility works on are the BR710 and the Tay 611-8/C, which are used extensively in the business and private jet sector, powering planes from manufacturers like Bombardier and Gulfstream. There are over 5,000 BR710 and Tay engines flying around the globe, and Rolls-Royce Canada cares for almost all of them. The Montreal facility is, after all, the Centre of Excellence for Rolls-Royce’s repair and overhaul operations for Business Aviation.
No better place to be than Ville-Marie Over the course of their 75 years in the city, the choice of Rolls-Royce to locate their facility in Montreal has proven itself again and again. This is a city that truly embraces and values industry employers. It's where international companies love to do business and employees love to call home. As a result, Montreal has become a major hub for aerospace manufacturing, research, and maintenance, home to many domestic industry powerhouses and branches of the world’s most significant aerospace multinationals.
Government partners also have programs which support research and development.
And we have an incredible pool of talent with research centres, trade schools, and a number of universities with dedicated programs just for aerospace.”
Canada’s brightest aerospace minds building a better future
Today, we have a very successful and diversified aerospace repair and overhaul business, supporting over 600 aircraft operators in over 30 countries all around the world.
“In Montreal, we like to brag that we can build an aircraft from tip to tail within a 30-kilometre radius,” says Giangi. “The aerospace industry is a source of national pride in Quebec. We’ve got all the right players here. Aerospace companies are attracted to Montreal because we have a very competitive cost environment. Energy prices are very low, and that energy is very green.
The rich learning environment of Montreal has also long provided Rolls-Royce Canada with an invaluable array of opportunities for partnerships with world-class research and educational institutions. They’re currently working on a research project with the National Research Council Canada, Laval University, and Polytechnique Montréal to develop an automated inspection and repair process for critical engine parts, as well as a number of ongoing projects focusing on sustainability and electrification. The concentration of scientific talent and expertise in Canada has been absolutely indispensable in allowing Rolls-Royce to continue pushing forward the envelope of the possible.
And so, looking forward to the next 75 years and beyond, Rolls-Royce remains confident that Canada will continue to be the place to be.
As the aerospace industry evolves and adapts, with a large focus on sustainability, in particular, the role of research and collaboration will only become more central to innovation and success. And Quebec is a perfect place for that collaboration. When the skies are filled with the next generation of cutting-edge aircraft engines, you can be certain that many of those too will be stamped with the double R. And those engines will all be coming to Montreal for the gold standard in care.
At the Montreal Rolls-Royce Facility, Sustainability, and Diversity Are Pilot and Co-pilot
Over the course of three-quarters of a century in Montreal, Rolls-Royce’s most storied international aerospace facility has been pushing the envelope in the fast-paced and mission-critical world of aircraft engine repair and overhaul. In 2022, the Spirit of Innovation at Rolls-Royce Canada remains as strong as ever in their core services, but they have also committed to blazing a trail in the essential domains of sustainability, diversity, and inclusion.
D.F. McCourt
The future is coming more quickly than ever before, and no industry can face it standing still. The aerospace sector least of all. With the power of the world’s most respected aircraft engines pushing them ever forward — literally through the skies and metaphorically into the future — Rolls-Royce’s Canadian operations are addressing the pressing issues of the 21st century with eyes and minds open.
Pioneering tomorrow’s green aviation Climate change, of course, tops almost any list of global concerns today, and Rolls-Royce is well aware that the aviation industry will need to adapt in unprecedented ways to meet its bold net-zero goals. The transportation sector, in its entirety, is a significant contributor to carbon emissions worldwide. And, while aviation is only a small part of that whole, players like Rolls-Royce are committed to finding every avenue for sustainability.
“I think people perceive aerospace as being possibly a larger polluter than it truly is,” says Denis Giangi, President of Rolls-Royce Canada Limited. “Still, the industry accounts for about two per cent of global emissions. That’s smaller than people might think, but it’s still a number which we’re working very hard to get down.”
As electrification of ground transportation surges forward in every country, aviation has long been seen as profoundly impenetrable to the electric revolution. RollsRoyce is dead set on challenging that preconception. Last year, the company’s all-electric Spirit of Innovation aircraft more than doubled the previous speed record of 213 km/h over three kilometres for an electric plane, eventually reaching a top speed of 623 km/h (Mach 0.5), making it not only the fastest electric aircraft in history but the fastest electric vehicle of any type.
It bears mentioning, of course, that this technology is still some years away from providing a solution for commercial air travel. But the Spirit of Innovation is clearly showing that our longstanding assumptions about electric aviation are past due for reconsideration, even as more immediately attainable developments in sustainable fuels transform the industry today.
aircraft being powered by batteries tomorrow, the batteries just aren’t at that level yet. However, things look different for smaller commuter aircraft or flying taxis, so-called eVTOLs. The challenge ahead has been taken up, and the full attention of the global company has been put on making sure that we achieve net zero by 2050. Last year Rolls-Royce invested £1.2 billion in R&D, and three-quarters of that was focused on lower carbon growth. We’re focusing on more efficient, cleaner solutions for the world. A lot of research is being done by Rolls-Royce locally here in Canada, with Canadian universities, putting us in a better position to make that a reality.”
themselves passively. The road to diversity and inclusion demands endurance and dedication from those who would walk it, and the journey is not over in a day.
Enabling innovation through diverse experience
Just as sustainability is the critical arena for the advancements that will ensure the future of the planet, diversity and inclusion form the essential field on which we will secure the future of our society. Canada is a country built on diversity, and that richness has always proved to be one of our greatest strengths. When creativity, agility, and compassion are required, as they very much are in the aerospace sector, businesses that want to thrive must leverage the full spectrum of experience and perspective that Canada’s diversity has to offer.
The transportation sector, in its entirety, is a significant contributor to carbon emissions worldwide. And, while aviation is only a small part of that whole, Rolls-Royce will pioneer cutting edge technologies that deliver clean, safe and competitive solutions to meet our planet’s vital power needs and achieve net zero by 2050.
For Rolls-Royce, this imperative is felt keenly, and they have made significant efforts to interweave it with the very DNA of their operations. “If we get 10 people that are thinking the same way around a table, we’ll always get the same end result,” says Giangi. “I think that having different perspectives helps every business make the best decisions.
At Rolls-Royce Canada, I’ve personally seen that many times across our team.”
“We have inclusion targets at every level in the company, and we’re very dedicated to them,” says Annie Christa-Lee Fortier, Director of Supply Chain Planning and Control at Rolls-Royce Canada. “We recognize that there’s a positive impact from having a diverse group of people and also from having gender parity. As an example of what we’ve achieved, 30 per cent of our engineering team is now women, which is remarkable in an industry that is, and has been, very male. We have very precise stretch targets for getting to parity in every group, from engineering to leadership.”
A place people want to work
In the competitive labour market of Montreal, especially, it takes a lot to stand out above the crowd as an employer of choice.
For Rolls-Royce Canada, this has meant not only cultivating an inclusive and welcoming environment with opportunity for the city’s multifarious population but also understanding that a diverse workforce has diverse needs. “Work-life balance is extremely important,” says Fortier. “Even on the shop floor, where people can’t really work from home, we have flexible start times and a flexible working policy. We look at providing this flexibility as an opportunity to attract and keep the talent that we value.”
“There are a lot of really cool and novel power provisioning electrical architectures that are being developed now across the group,” says Giangi. “As for having a larger
Across all industries, but especially in sectors like aerospace, fostering inclusion requires more than just removing barriers. True progress on this front necessitates the intentional opening of doors and transformation of culture, lest historical biases and trends continue to reinforce
It’s a very different world and a very different Canada than it was when Rolls-Royce first opened the doors of their Montreal facility 75 years ago. The aviation industry, the workforce, and the global business environment have evolved in many cycles over the decades. Rolls-Royce Canada has always stayed ahead and above by anticipating and embracing these changing circumstances and needs. In this moment of sustainability and inclusion, they have once again shown that they’re ready to lead the way.
To learn more, visit rolls-royce.com
These pages were sponsored by RollsRoyce.
Denis Giangi President, Rolls-Royce Canada
Annie ChristaLee Fortier Director of Supply Chain Planning & Control, Rolls-Royce Canada
The Rolls-Royce Icing Test facility GLACIER in Thompson.
Evolution of Aviation: Advanced Air Mobility
When people think of aviation, they usually think of long-distance travel in airplanes flying to and from airports — away from urban or rural areas. But what if aviation could reach those rural regions and urban centres? Enter: Advanced Air Mobility (AAM)
What is Advanced Air Mobility?
Advanced Air Mobility is the evolution of air transportation enabled by an ecosystem of new technologies allowing people, goods, and services to move within urban and regional areas safely, according to the Canadian Drone Advisory Committee (CanaDAC).
AAM combines traditional technologies such as planes, helicopters, and drones with new innovations in electrification, fuels, and automation to create a new, more sustainable mobility solution. These new innovations allow for new ways of connecting people between cities, within them, and to more rural areas outside of them. These new ways of flying are simpler, faster, cheaper, and best of all, create zero emissions during operation.
The different types of AAM aircraft
Under the AAM umbrella, aircraft range from cargo-carrying drones to passenger-carrying aircraft, each serving a different mobility purpose. Drones: also known as Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), drones are the smallest aircraft in AAM. Drones are remotely controlled or autonomous, capable of carrying out tasks such as cargo or medical delivery,
supporting emergency disaster management alongside wildlife, and environmental monitoring. Drones are a more sustainable method than ground delivery or aerial monitoring, which uses fossil fuel.
During the pandemic, Canadian company InDro Robotics, specializing in drone technology, transported medical supplies to Penelakut Island — a remote community between Vancouver Island and the mainland Pacific coast of British Columbia.
Time-sensitive lab samples, which were usually moved by ferry to off-island labs, became even more important during the pandemic.
Drone deliveries lessened the chance of COVID-19 exposure and meant health-care workers could remain with clients while also reducing the journey from Penelakut Island to the nearest labs from over four hours to just seven minutes.
future of AAM. Their size, speed, and maneuverability allow flights to predetermined stops within urban centres, like public transport — hence the more commonly recognized term, air taxis. But not all eVTOLs are for urban transport. For example, some have a longer range that enables travel between regions rather than within a city.
Vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) VTOL isn’t new to aviation — helicopters have been around for decades, but they paved the way for hybrid and electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft in AAM. These aircraft could have a pilot on board or be automated, carry up to seven passengers, and only need a small take-off and landing area. Unlike helicopters, eVTOLs produce less noise and have more than two rotors to lift the aircraft, allowing more control over maneuverability while reducing emissions thanks to electric propulsion.
Hybrid and eVTOL aircraft are part of the
Aside from providing convenience to travellers, eVTOLs also can support first responders in disaster management, as medical helicopters have proven the need for emergency response by air. With eVTOLs, emergency response trips would reduce the environmental impact, lower costs, and improve operational efficiency.
New developments in fuel, manufacturing, software, and technology enable AAM to take flight. And when it’s ready to take off safely, AAM will have many opportunities to make the world better.
Canadian Advanced Air Mobility (CAAM) is a socially responsible, federal not-for-profit consortium that acts as a national catalyst for the AAM industry in Canada.
The biggest aerospace industry cluster in Canada can be found in the vicinity of Toronto Pearson International — the country’s largest airport. But don’t let the name mislead you — Toronto Pearson is not actually in Toronto but next door in Mississauga, where the circumstances are perfect for a culture of aerospace innovation to thrive.
Since the earliest days of the Silver Dart, which flew just three years after the Wright brothers took to the air in Kitty Hawk, Canada has been a global aerospace pioneer. Then, in the post-war 1940s, with the founding of Avro Canada and others, the industry began to call the area that’s now the City of Mississauga its home. The concentration of facilities and expertise that have developed there in the three-quarters of a century since has created a truly unique environment for the collaboration and cutting-edge development that makes Canada a sustained leader in the skies.
A truly international collaboration
At the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Canada Aerospace (MHICA) plant on Northwest Dr., Mississauga, workers are building wings and fuselages for Bombardier business jets.
They’ve been shipping those parts to Bombardier’s Downsview and Montreal locations for years, but soon those deliveries will be
going just around the corner to Bombardier’s new $400 million Mississauga facility, set to employ 2,000 workers when it opens in 2023. This investment from Bombardier is a clear testament to the benefit of co-location in an industry hotspot like Mississauga.
“Mississauga is a hub for this industry, making it easier for companies to innovate and be one step ahead of everybody because we collaborate so much and work so well together,” says Janet Wardle, President and CEO of MHICA. “And the airport is just a few minutes down the road. Being in Mississauga makes us more competitive as we look to diversify our customers.”
MHICA has been at its current location in Mississauga, since 2012, and in 2019, it nearly doubled the size of that facility. As a subsidiary of a Japanese multinational, the pancultural character of Mississauga was a huge contributing factor in drawing the company to the city. Wardle recounts that there are 66 flags hanging in the MHICA cafeteria, a testament to the many countries from which their workers have made the pilgrimage to this worldwide magnetic north for aerospace professionals.
Canadian innovation for a global aerospace community Even as the city draws more talent and
investment from all corners of the world, the homegrown aerospace industry continues to grow and thrive in this diversifying local supply chain. Aversan Inc., a multi-service engineering company that provides critical embedded systems and software for aerospace partners and other industries, has been based in Mississauga ever since the founding of the company in 2003. “Being in an aerospace hub is very, very helpful,” says Nikou Morshedi, Director of Operations at Aversan. “The projects we work on are complex and innovative. Co-location and collaboration build trust and efficiency, and that’s a big part of our success and our customers’ success.”
As the industry continues to boom back after the COVID-19 pandemic, the consensus is that there remain even more remarkable heights ahead. “There’s so much room for growth here,” says Nikou. “Mississauga has a great talent pool which sets us up for success and enables us to grow, expand, and diversify.”
The city itself is dedicated to paving the road for that tomorrow by promoting investment and supporting the many local aerospace organizations to which companies like Aversan and MHICA belong. This city is deeply proud of its rich aerospace history and enthusiastic about helping shape an innovative aerospace future.
Nikou Morshedi Director of Operations, Aversan Inc.
Janet Wardle President & CEO, MHICA
David Dong Digital Marketer, Canadian Advanced Air Mobility Consortium
