aviation - the past, present and future of flight

S

ome of the vintage aircraft of

Canada’s  ight test centre belie

the high-tech work being carried

out there. Based in its own

maintenance hangar and machine shop

at Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International

Airport (IATA code YOW), the National

Research Council (NRC) Flight Research

Lab (FRL)  eet relies on various types, and

a North American Harvard, Lockheed T-33

Shooting Star and a Bell 205 are among its

‘older generation’. Paul Kissmann, FRL’s

head of  ight operations, and its main pilot

said: “Because of the acquisition cost, we

tend to keep aircraft for a long time once

we buy them. We have a real museum of

aircraft types here – and they all  y.”

FRL has an impressive list of clients,

which includes the Canadian government,

the European Space Agency (ESA) and

NASA. They use the NRC because its ‘old

dogs’ are very capable of performing ‘new

tricks’ including simulating the  ight handling

characteristics of unbuilt prototype aircraft.

“There is no doubt we are constantly

breaking scienti c ground and advancing

the state of knowledge using 1940s and

1950s technology,” said Dr Mengistu Wolde,

a senior research officer at the NRC; the

scientist behind many of the projects that

Kissmann takes into the sky. “These older

aircraft accept modi cations easily and can

perform a wide range of research missions

using the very latest in testing equipment

and technology.”

Thanks to it being based in Ottawa

(midway between Toronto and Montreal),

the NRC FRL has access to relatively

uncrowded airspace for locally based

tests, plus the ability to  y all over

North America and into the Arctic at the

behest of its research partners. The

organisation’s cadre of skilled scientists,

engineers and mechanics have access

to the tools and materials they need to

create specially purposed aerial test

beds; including hand-made fuselage-

mounted radomes to house sensors.

64 Aviation News incorporating Jets August 2018

CANADA’S FLIGHT

TEST CENTRE

Canada’s National Research Council operates fi xed- and rotary-wing aircraft

for world-class in-fl ight research and development. James Careless

examines the unusual mix of old and new types used for this work.

Above: Among the range of tasks that the

NRC Twin Otter can perform is to evaluate

the health of vegetation. NRC

The Convair 580 serves as a

multi-purpose  ying laboratory

and is the NRC’s workhorse. NRC

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