Aerial innovation: prop system ready for flight testing.

• Author: Kelly, Lindsay
• Position: TRANSPORTATION

After years of research, Thunder Bay's Aerovate Inc. will flight-test its variable-pitch propeller system this summer, with the goal of bringing the technology to market this fall.

Aerovate's system, the brainchild of owner Andrew Kondor, is designed to be used on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, for civilian and military applications.

The company has completed construction on a 12-foot unmanned aircraft, which will be used to test the system, and Florida-based Sensenich, Aerovate's partner in making the propeller part of the hub system, has finalized the design for the new prop.

Kondor anticipated the system would be fully tested by the end of August.

"Our test airplane is finished, and we're at the point where, obviously, we know that our system works, and we were in the process in the last few years of testing it to make sure we have something that works," Kondor said. "But now we have to get it in the air to be able to give real-time flight data to potential customers."

To help facilitate his work, Aerovate was approved for $62,500 in funding from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp.

"It's going to be used to leverage the current investment funds that we have to be able to buy equipment that otherwise would be a little bit out of our range, as far as pricing goes," he said. "It allows us to have the best possible equipment on hand to test our propeller system and allow us to commercialize it to the fullest extent, providing the best data to our customers."

The money will allow the company to buy a better quality autopilot system, telemetry equipment to monitor in-flight progress, and transportation equipment for the plane. Government funding means the company will have to borrow less to finance the project.

Aerovate's funding announcement coincided with another government release. In June, the National Research Council Canada (NRC) launched a series of new programs designed to support the Canadian aerospace industry.

One program, the Civil Unmanned Aircraft Systems program, is designed to address challenges associated with system technology and regulation, as well as facilitate collaboration between developers, providers and key end-users for successful demonstration projects.

Kondor said testing he's done in the past through the NRC has been helpful in collecting data needed to prove the viability of the technology to investors, and there could be potential for...