28 janvier 2021 | Local, Aérospatial
BY NATASHA MCKENTY | JANUARY 28, 2021
Estimated reading time 14 minutes, 58 seconds.
Brandon Robinson's Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and Top Aces fighter pilot exploits compare to those of a protagonist in a blockbuster movie. After graduating from the Royal Military College of Canada with First Class Honours, his career quickly skyrocketed from frontline fighter squadron to being selected for the prestigious Fighter Weapons Instructor Course (FWIC) – the Canadian version of Top Gun. He obtained an MBA at Royal Roads University, and then did a tour in Ottawa where he “managed over $4 billion in procurement projects for the Fighter Force.”
He spent the next few years instructing for FWIC. “Think ‘Viper' from the movie Top Gun,” he laughed.
I then completed our Joint Command and Staff College program for those flagged for senior leadership.”
While instructing for FWIC, Robinson earned the CF-18 fighter pilot instructor role at 410 Squadron in Cold Lake, Alberta, leading into oversight of CF-18 Fleet Tactical Standards, and then onto senior project management with a deputy director role in multiple Air Force projects.
Robinson is modest. He credits his competitive nature “and a lot of luck” for his success.
“I fully acknowledge that without exceptionally talented and competitive friends, I would not have passed, let alone have been fortunate enough to fly jets,” he told Skies.
He found Military College to be physically and emotionally demanding, having a way of teaching you your limits and how to “be at peace with them.” Despite the challenges, he was one of the top five engineers in the program all four years.
For Robinson, aviation was innate. His grandfather, RCAF Capt Eric Robinson was a Second World War bomber pilot. His father, Brian Robinson, began flying at the age of 14, but his hopes of joining the Air Force were grounded when he learned his vision wasn't good enough.
“My father was very young when he and [my grandfather] built from scrap metal what is now a family airplane — an old RC-3 Republic Seabee aircraft.” Brian retired from his day job to turn the family hobby into a successful custom aviation engineering business.
There was always “an army of airplanes” in and around Robinson's home.
The first time Robinson piloted a plane, he was three years old. His grandfather let him sit in the seat in front of him. “I couldn't sit. I had to stand,” he laughed. “He said, ‘OK, you have control, so take us over there.'”
That experience “made an imprint” for Robinson. After high school, much to his “mother's chagrin,” he joined the RCAF to “fly fast jets.”
After military training, “there's a big [graduation] ceremony where they hand out the slots, and I remember looking at the card and seeing the CF-18 symbol on the bottom,” he said. Internally, he was bursting.
Not surprisingly, when asked about the memorable moments of his career, he said it's difficult to choose.
Robinson recalled, after being on the Squadron for just three months in Bagotville, Quebec, he was deployed to Hawaii for a joint exercise with the U.S. Navy.
“The U.S. Navy has this big exercise, and the Canadians were asked to go,” he said. “So, we ferried CF-18s across the country, from Quebec to Comox, British Columbia. We overnighted, met up with an aerial refueler and then the next thing I know I'm in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, tanking off a refueler. There's a portion where, if you can't get gas, you're going to have to eject because you can't get back to land. I'm a 27-year-old kid who only has 200 hours of experience in this CF-18, and I'm over the middle of the ocean thinking, ‘OK, you better make this happen.' It's not the easiest maneuver either,” he laughed.
Robinson shared the story of how he earned his call-sign: Repo. “I was flying, and my left engine essentially blew up; one of the main turbine hubs fractured. It severely crippled the aircraft, placing it into a reversionary control architecture. The engine was destroyed, and the aircraft was on fire,” he said.
After 10 “very long seconds” of being “out of control,” he “dealt with the fire” and regained control.
“I was able to land it safely back at the base. However, it was too badly damaged to fix. So, the joke was that the government had to repossess or repo it,” he laughed. “The damaged engine almost fell out when I landed.”
He remembered flying low-level over the ocean while “shooting missiles at drones and dropping bombs on remote-controlled moving ships; being in front of 100 angry fighter pilots leading a NATO coalition strike mission; [and] early morning departures over Torrey Pines in California to dogfight over the ocean.”
In 2018, with 20 years of service and a list of neck and spine injuries in his rear-view, he knew it was time to find adrenaline elsewhere. “You can't pull seven-and-a-half Gs for 20 years without hurting a few things,” he laughed.
Leaving, he admitted, was a difficult decision, but entrepreneurship was also on his radar.
The kid that grew up in rural Ontario, Canada, with an “army of airplanes” at his disposal and a military career most would envy, headed out to his next call of duty. He joined forces with his father to start Horizon Aircraft, an aerospace startup that is currently developing the Cavorite X5 — a new eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) design for the urban air mobility market.
Horizon has been developing the Cavorite X5 for the past two years. The concept for the X5 came from the company's initial prototype, the X3 — an amphibious design with a hybrid electric power system. “When we were asked to push the performance even further, we naturally began investigating distributed electric propulsion and the potential for eVTOL modification of the core X3 concept,” explained Robinson. “That's how the X5
The five-seat Cavorite X5 is powered by an electric motor coupled with a high-efficiency gas engine, but is ultimately built for fully electric flight. Horizon is building the aircraft to fly at speeds up to 350 kilometers per hour, with a 450-km range.
The focus is to produce an aircraft “able to do real work in harsh environments,” including disaster relief, medevac, air cargo and personnel transport.
Today, Robinson has his hands full with multiple patents pending, including a “fan-in-wing design” that would allow the Cavorite X5 to fly either like a conventional aircraft or an eVTOL when required. The X5 “flies like a normal aircraft for 99 percent of its mission,” said Robinson. The wing design “allows the aircraft to return to normal wing-borne lift after its vertical portion is complete; when moving forward, the wings close up and hide the vertical lift fans.”
Horizon is working towards a large-scale prototype it hopes to have flying by the end of 2021.
Robinson has become comfortable fielding questions based on skepticism. He's built an army of support from his highly-skilled network, including Virgin Galactic test pilot and close friend, Jameel Janjua. “Our team is extremely experienced, formed out of my father's previous custom aviation engineering business. We also have an individual leading the technical development who has designed, built and tested two novel aircraft designs from scratch.
https://skiesmag.com/news/first-class-fighter-pilot-evtol-entrepreneur
24 septembre 2023 | Local, Sécurité
Today the Naval Reserve will mark 100 years of service to Canada with approximately 4,000 Naval Reservists marching in Freedom of the City parades across 24 Canadian cities.
22 septembre 2022 | Local, Sécurité
Alors que les Canadiens apprécient les activités de plein air, que ce soit pour jouer, travailler ou explorer de nouveaux lieux, le personnel de recherche et sauvetage se tient prêt à répondre lorsque quelqu'un manque à l'appel ou se trouve en détresse. Le gouvernement du Canada s'est engagé à soutenir la collectivité de recherche et sauvetage en la munissant des outils et de la technologie dont elle a besoin afin de mieux servir les Canadiens et pour établir une approche uniforme aux opérations de recherche et de sauvetage partout au pays. Aujourd'hui, au nom de l'honorable Bill Blair, président du Conseil privé de la Reine et ministre de la Protection civile, le secrétaire parlementaire Yasir Naqvi a annoncé une subvention de 1,4 million de dollars à l'entreprise Counter Crisis Technology Inc. Ce financement, disponible par l'entremise du Fonds des nouvelles initiatives de recherche et de sauvetage de Sécurité publique Canada, soutiendra le développement et la mise en œuvre d'une solution logicielle d'un système partagé de commandement des opérations dont profiteront les bénévoles et le personnel rémunéré en recherche et sauvetage au sol, notamment les services de police, et ce, dans tout le pays. Le nouveau système améliorera la recherche et le sauvetage au sol au Canada en s'appuyant sur la technologie existante pour renforcer la coordination entre les organismes de recherche et de sauvetage. À cette fin, il mise sur le partage des connaissances, de l'information et des données entre les administrations. Le système offrira et permettra le soutien d'une solution intégrée aux services de police dans l'ensemble du Canada en favorisant l'aide mutuelle, la coopération et l'amélioration des capacités et des résultats d'intervention en cas de catastrophe au profit des Canadiens. https://www.canada.ca/fr/securite-publique-canada/nouvelles/2022/09/le-gouvernement-du-canada-investit-14-million-de-dollars-pour-ameliorer-le-processus-de-recherche-et-de-sauvetage-au-pays.html
21 janvier 2019 | Local, Terrestre
DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN The case dates back to 2016 when the Canadian International Trade Tribunal ruled that the process which awarded a truck contact to Mack Defense of the U.S. was flawed Taxpayers are on the hook for potentially tens of millions of dollars after federal bureaucrats bungled the purchase of trucks for the Canadian Forces and now must make good on the lost profits for a U.S. firm. But Public Services and Procurement Canada, which oversaw the flawed defence procurement, has declined to provide details on just how much the penalties will cost the public. Defence industry representatives, however, say the penalty being paid to the U.S. company, Oshkosh, could be as high as $60 million as it has to account for lost profit on the $834-million contract as well as other expenses the firm incurred. The case dates back to 2016 when the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) ruled that the process, which awarded the truck contact to Mack Defense of the U.S., was flawed. The CITT supported the concerns of Mack's rival, Oshkosh, that there were significant issues with the evaluation of the vehicles. As a result, the tribunal called on Public Services and Procurement Canada to conduct a new evaluation of the trucks being purchased for the Canadian Forces. The CITT recommended that Oshkosh be compensated for its lost opportunity to profit But instead, the department continued with the process to buy the Mack trucks and went to federal court in 2017 to challenge the tribunal's ruling. It recently abandoned that appeal. It was revealed by the tribunal that Public Services and Procurement Canada had failed to keep many key records to support its claim that the Mack trucks met the requirements for the Canadian military. “The CITT recommended that Oshkosh be compensated for its lost opportunity to profit,” the department noted in a response to Postmedia about the settlement it reached with the firm. The department, however, declined to provide details, claiming that the payout is confidential. It did not explain why the penalties that taxpayers must shoulder should be considered secret. “This matter is now closed,” according to the department's statement. The Conservative government announced in 2015 that Mack Defense had won the $834-million contract to provide the 1,500 standard military pattern trucks as well as in-service support for the vehicles. “Truck deliveries are ongoing and expected to be completed during spring 2020,” Public Services and Procurement Canada noted. It stated that the Mack trucks meet the required standards. Oshkosh said in a statement to Postmedia that it was pleased with the financial settlement that resulted from its challenge heard by the trade tribunal. “Oshkosh cannot comment further on the details of this confidential settlement,” noted Alexandra Hittle of Oshkosh Defense. The program to purchase the trucks was originally announced in 2006 by the Conservatives but the acquisition was dogged by problems. The vehicles were supposed to be delivered in 2008 and the project was considered a priority because the vehicles they were to replace had become a safety hazard, with faulty brakes and excessive rust. But in 2012 the Conservative government temporarily shut down the project after learning that the Department of National Defence increased the cost of the project by $300 million but hadn't received permission from government to do that. The government had approved an original budget of $430 million but department and military officials began adding more capabilities to what they wanted in the vehicles, bumping the estimated cost up. DND officials continued on with the acquisition without going back to Treasury Board for approval for the extra money, angering the Conservative government. Delivery of the Mack trucks began last year and have continued to various bases throughout Canada. Earlier this month Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan highlighted the delivery of some of the trucks to a base in Quebec, noting that, “through our defence policy, Strong, Secure, Engaged, we are providing the women and men of our Canadian Armed Forces with the equipment they need to do their jobs.” Sajjan did not mention that the trucks were ordered under the Conservative government. dpugliese@postmedia.com https://ottawacitizen.com/news/canada/tens-of-millions-paid-out-due-to-bungled-canadian-forces-procurement-but-government-says-details-are-secret