Aircraft used by Snowbirds aerobatic team, on the go since 1963, will be kept flying until 2030

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  16 janvier 2019 | Local, Aérospatial

  Top Aces Achieves Record-breaking 75,000 Hours of Air Combat Training

  MONTREAL, Jan. 16, 2019 /CNW Telbec/ - Top Aces Inc. announced today that it reached an unprecedented 75,000 hours of operational air combat training. The historic milestone was achieved in December during a deployment to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. Top Aces Alpha Jet aircraft supported Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Exercise PUMA STRIKE, providing both Red Air and electronic attack training for Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Cold Lake 410 Fighter Squadron operational training unit and 409 Tactical Fighter Squadron. This exercise featured RCAF units including CF-18s and KC-130s, supported by RCAF Air Weapons Controllers. Top Aces teams were also recently deployed to Holloman Air Force Base in support of RCAF 433 Tactical Fighter Squadron Exercise TIPIC STRIKE where they flew mutually beneficial training exercises with the USAF 8th, 311th and 314th Fighter Squadron F-16 Replacement Training Units (RTU) and worked with Canadian and American Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTAC). Top Aces aircraft participated in combined close air support operations with CF-18, Alpha Jet and MQ-9 Reaper aircraft that included inert weapon deliveries. Top Aces deploys annually to meet its clients' needs wherever they perform their exercises. "Thanks to the trust of our clients and the dedication of our team, we have just established a world record in the number of hours flown by an adversary air provider," said Paul Bouchard, President and CEO and founder of Top Aces. "Reaching 75,000 hours is unparalleled in our industry worldwide. We are very proud of this milestone and of our industry-leading safety record and airworthiness standards. We are ready to deliver the next generation of highly-representative adversary air to all our customers worldwide." To meet the needs of its customers, Top Aces intends to introduce the next generation of aggressor training using the supersonic F-16 Fighting Falcon equipped with advanced radar, electronic attack (EA) and on-board systems. Top Aces is committed to the continued delivery of the industry-leading standards of quality and performance demanded by the world's air forces. About Top Aces Top Aces provides advanced airborne training to the world's leading air forces. Founded in 2000 by a small group of highly accomplished former fighter pilots, Top Aces has the largest worldwide footprint of privately-held operational fighter aircraft that provide advanced adversary, air-defence and Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) training services around the globe. The mission-critical training offered by Top Aces enhances the operational readiness of combat forces by providing a realistic real-world experience while prolonging fleet life. The company is changing the face of air combat training with its unparalleled safety record, outstanding team and an industry-leading 75 000 hours of operational training flown in support of its customers worldwide. Top Aces has the experience that matters. For Further Information please visit www.topaces.com. SOURCE Top Aces Inc For further information: Media contact: Rachel Andrews, Director of Marketing, rachel.andrews@topaces.com, +1 514-694-5565 ext. 2201, +1 514-451-5131 https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/top-aces-achieves-record-breaking-75-000-hours-of-air-combat-training-808279562.html

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  12 mars 2019 | Local, Aérospatial

  Simulating the ‘SuperScooper’

  by Lisa Gordon The Viking CL-415 “SuperScooper” is more akin to a pick-up truck than a sports car. It's a hardworking, amphibious turboprop that was built to fight wildfires. It flies low, battling blistering heat and blinding smoke, before releasing 13,500 pounds of water in six seconds – and then returning to a nearby lake where it skims the surface to reload. Introduced in 1993 by Bombardier, the CL-415 was essentially a turboprop version of its predecessor, the piston-powered CL-215. Today, there are close to 170 CL-215/415 aircraft in operation, mostly in Europe and North America. They are now supported by Viking Air, which acquired the program from Bombardier in 2016. Pilot training in the CL-415 has historically been done in the aircraft, but TRU Simulation + Training says that due to the unique mission it performs, those training flights can be dangerous. The South Carolina-headquartered company is a division of industry giant Textron Inc., and was formed following the amalgamation of several specialty flight simulation and pilot training companies, including former Montreal-based Mechtronix. About two years ago, TRU's commercial aviation division in Montreal began designing the world's first CL-415 full flight simulator (FFS) with the capability to replicate operations not only in the air, but also on the water. The company was able to draw on its recent experience of successfully building a Series 400 Twin Otter FFS for Canada's Pacific Sky Aviation in Calgary, Alta. – the world's first seaplane simulator with water-handling capabilities. “Before the Twin Otter project, hydrodynamic modelling is something we hadn't done before,” acknowledged Thom Allen, TRU's vice-president of Technology and Innovation. “It's like a boat simulator because you're modelling the buoyancy of the floats or the fuselage in the water. Interestingly, our engineers working on the Twin Otter program actually went to the library and researched how boats work on the water. Mixing the boat sim with the aerodynamic sim is the whole package.” He said the CL-415 experience took things one step further by adding the mission component – scooping the water – to the Twin Otter build. “From a safety point of view, the types of missions you do in a waterbomber are quite a bit different from a commercial aircraft. When you're scooping water and dropping it over a fire, training in those conditions is very dangerous. The tradeoff has always been between the quality of the training and the danger of doing that sort of training.” TRU's CL-415 FFS was delivered to Ansett Aviation Training in Milan, Italy, in September 2018 and certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in December to Level D standards. Although training courses have yet to be completed in the simulator, the hope is that both initial and recurrent pilot training will be done exclusively in the device. Allen said the operational characteristics of a CL-415 are complex and unique. “When you're flying over a very hot fire, you drop your water and the mass of the aircraft is cut in half. The turbulence effect is quite significant when you hit the updraft. The fire is creating turbulence, smoke, reduced visibility – and pilots are dropping every five or 10 minutes repeatedly, usually in rugged terrain at low altitudes. This is the part that made this project something new.” To gather accurate performance data, TRU rented a CL-415 and equipped it with flight test instrumentation. “We weren't doing fire drops with our engineers on board, but we did all the manoeuvres around that, and we brought in a number of senior CL-415 pilots to evaluate our work.” The result is the world's first high fidelity CL-415 simulator with the capability of replicating not just air and water operations, but various types and intensities of forest fires and changes in related environmental conditions. The cockpit noise level is accurately reproduced by a secondary audio system that – like the real aircraft – requires crewmembers to wear a noise-cancelling headset. Full article: https://www.skiesmag.com/news/simulating-the-superscooper

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  4 avril 2023 | Local, Naval

  Davie Shipyard joins Irving, Seaspan in national shipbuilding program | CBC News

  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hailed the inclusion of Quebec's Davie Shipyard in the federal government's national shipbuilding program Tuesday as a major step forward for national industrial policy.