Canadian aviation

NZDoug

Council Member
Jul 18, 2017
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Big Bay, Awhitu, New Zealand
Procurement of the Lockheed F-35 Lightening for Canadas Armed Forces is a waste of time for Canada as we learned that manned aircraft have no future with the AVRO ARROW debacle. It just an appeasement to grovel at the feet of America.
Don't buy it.
................................
AI Slays Top F-16 Pilot In DARPA Dogfight Simulation
"It's a giant leap," said DARPA's Justin (call sign "Glock") Mock.
……………………………
WASHINGTON: In a 5 to 0 sweep, an AI ‘pilot’ developed by Heron Systems beat one of the Air Force’s top F-16 fighter pilots in DARPA’s simulated aerial dogfight contest today.
“It’s a giant leap,” said DARPA’s Justin (call sign “Glock”) Mock, who served as a commentator on the trials.
AI still has a long way to go before the Air Force pilots would be ready to hand over the stick to an artificial intelligence during combat, DARPA officials said during today’s live broadcast of the AlphaDogfight trials. But the three-day trials show that AI systems can credibly maneuver an aircraft in a simple, one-on-one combat scenario and shoot its forward guns in a classic, WWII-style dogfight. On the other hand, they said, it was an impressive showing by an AI agent after only a year of development. (As I reported earlier this week, the program began back in September last year with eight teams developing their respective AIs.)
Heron, a small, female- and minority-owned company with offices in Maryland and Virginia, builds artificial intelligence agents, and is also a player in DARPA’s Gamebreaker effort to explore tactics for disrupting enemy strategies using real-world games as platforms. The company beat eight other teams, including one led by defense giant Lockheed Martin — which came in second in the AlphaDogfight “semi-finals” that pitted the AI pilots against each other this morning.
Heron’s team did a live-stream Q&A on Youtube. “Even a week before Trial 1, we had agents that were not very good at flying at all. We really turned it around, and since then we’ve been really number one,” said Ben Bell, Heron’s co-lead for the project. The team intends to publish later this year some of the details about its reinforcement learning process for the AI, he said.
The trials were designed as a risk-reduction effort for DARPA’s Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program to flesh out how human and machine pilots share operational control of a fighter jet to maximize its chances of mission success. The overarching ACE concept is aimed at allowing the pilot to shift “from single platform operator to mission commander” in charge not just of flying their own aircraft but managing teams of drones slaved to their fighter jet. “ACE aims to deliver a capability that enables a pilot to attend to a broader, more global air command mission while their aircraft and teamed unmanned systems are engaged in individual tactics,” the ACE program website explains.
more
https://breakingdefense.com/2020/08...8.21.20&utm_term=Editorial - Early Bird Brief
 

bob the dog

Council Member
Aug 14, 2020
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Air Canada adding to the A220 fleet, now at 10 of 45 ordered. Already grounded the Embraers they are replacing. Airbus will sell thousands.
 

bob the dog

Council Member
Aug 14, 2020
1,084
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Canadian government needs to step up and award a contract for the F18 replacement program to a Canadian company and support the industry. Unmanned drones seem to be the answer rather than F35s. Important to spend the money in the country. Canada will not lose a war because the planes were sub par.

Interesting to see all the current delta wing configurations originally developed with Avro program technology.
 
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Jinentonix

Hall of Fame Member
Sep 6, 2015
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Olympus Mons
The world's first fugitive hunt utilizing both air and ground resources was executed in Canada with legendary pilot "Wop" May at the controls as he and the RCMP hunted down the "Mad Trapper".


In 1919 the world's first commercial bush flight took place in Canada using a Curtiss HS-2Ls in the St. Maurice Valley.
Also in 1919 the world's first direct trans-Atlantic flight flew from St. John's NL to Clifden Ireland in a Vickers Vimy.



In the 1930's Canada moved more freight by air than all the other countries combined.


In 1999 Canada became the 1st country to implement safety management systems (or SMS) as a new way to eliminate safety risks in commercial and civil aviation.
 

petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
108,895
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Low Earth Orbit
Regina Municipal Airport

Many people might be surprised to learn that Regina is actually the home of many aviation firsts in Canada . The first licensed pilot was from Regina . The first licensed airplane mechanic was from Regina . The first licensed airport was located in Regina , as was the first licensed airplane. Regina was at the heart of the new burgeoning aviation industry when airplanes first became more commonplace after World War I.

Lieutenant Roland J. Groome was a flight instructor with the Royal Flying Corps during World War I. After the war ended, he returned to Regina with two wartime buddies, Edward Clarke and Bob McCombie. The men formed an aviation company, the Aerial Service Company, in 1919 and laid out an airfield near the corner of what is now Hill Avenue and Cameron Street . This was the first licensed aerodrome in Canada . While Groome was set to become the first licensed commercial aviator in Canada, his partner McCombie received the first Aviation Engineer's Certificate and one of the company's airplanes, a JN-4 (Can) Canuck, became the first licensed commercial aircraft in Canada (registration number: G-CAAA). Groome also flew the first inter-city airmail in Saskatchewan between Saskatoon and Regina . (The letter was from Saskatoon 's mayor to Regina 's mayor.) The Aerial Service Company flew passengers and freight around the province and provided flying lessons to eager would-be pilots.

In 1927, the Regina Flying Club was formed, and some land west of the city was purchased by the group with the aim of creating a more modern airport for the city. In 1930, the Regina Municipal Airport officially opened on the same site where the Regina Airport now stands. Although most air mail contracts were cancelled and overnight flights to the city stopped during the Depression, by 1932 the paving of Regina 's runways began. For many years Regina 's airport boasted the only paved runways between Montreal and Vancouver . (This was necessary because Regina sits on extremely rich and fertile topsoil which, while it is excellent for growing crops, is not good for the wheels of aircraft.)
 

Danbones

Hall of Fame Member
Sep 23, 2015
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Cool?...ugliest fan I've ever seen!
;)
They say any landing you can walk away from is a good landing...does that include sea planes too?

If one crashes at an airport would it be the ashfault?
 
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taxslave

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 25, 2008
36,362
4,336
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Vancouver Island
This is cool.
Quite common in my part of the country. Mostly they use a big skateboard for takeoff and a trailer setup for retrieval from the ocean. Another common dewatering device is a front wheel drive vehicle cut off behind the drivers seat and a platform out front for the plane. Tofino has the best setup. They have a big ditch parallel to the main runway for float planes to land in.
 
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bob the dog

Council Member
Aug 14, 2020
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Brand new Air Force One ready to be unveiled for Joe Biden. $5.3 billion to build. Will be Hunters party palace with no security checks when returning from international locations.
 

NZDoug

Council Member
Jul 18, 2017
1,894
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48
Big Bay, Awhitu, New Zealand
Brand new Air Force One ready to be unveiled for Joe Biden. $5.3 billion to build. Will be Hunters party palace with no security checks when returning from international locations.
Bob, thats U.S. Not CDN, but I forgive you.
Heres stuff thats not CDN, but could have been 🤡.

What about student loans, water or the homeless? Outrage follows report $1.7 trillion F-35 program is now considered a failure​

A tacit admission by the US Air Force that the F-35 has failed its main mission has triggered an outpouring of outrage from Americans who think the stealth fighter’s gargantuan budget could have been better spent on other things.
Frustration with Lockheed Martin’s fifth-generation stealth jet flooded Twitter on Wednesday, after Forbes magazine published a story about how USAF commissioning a study into a new, cheaper and lighter fighter amounts to “a tacit admission that the F-35 has failed.”

🤡
 

taxslave

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 25, 2008
36,362
4,336
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Vancouver Island
The world's first fugitive hunt utilizing both air and ground resources was executed in Canada with legendary pilot "Wop" May at the controls as he and the RCMP hunted down the "Mad Trapper".


In 1919 the world's first commercial bush flight took place in Canada using a Curtiss HS-2Ls in the St. Maurice Valley.
Also in 1919 the world's first direct trans-Atlantic flight flew from St. John's NL to Clifden Ireland in a Vickers Vimy.



In the 1930's Canada moved more freight by air than all the other countries combined.


In 1999 Canada became the 1st country to implement safety management systems (or SMS) as a new way to eliminate safety risks in commercial and civil aviation.
Just happened to read that story yesterday. Found a book about the pioneers of Canadian bush planes.
 
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bob the dog

Council Member
Aug 14, 2020
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The Last Great Frontiersman is the story of Tom Lamb who founded Lamb Air and opened up much of the north.
 

bob the dog

Council Member
Aug 14, 2020
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The rebranded Bombardier C-Series. There’s a story full of politics and corporate bullying.
Sad to think it went the way it did.

Bombardier was undercut at $35 million per plane and now they are selling for $50 +. The government did nothing.

Boeing in particular was dumb to pass on partnering given their subsequent issues with the plane they choose to compete with against the C series.

Airbus got the deal of all time by colluding with Boeing.

China has one coming though to keep them honest and Bombardier will do well in a smaller world. Significant transfer of technology and intellectual property was included at a loss to the Canadian aviation industry. Seems like deja vu all over again.
 
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Nick Danger

Council Member
Jul 21, 2013
1,798
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Penticton, BC
Sad to think it went the way it did.

Bombardier was undercut at $35 million per plane and now they are selling for $50 +. The government did nothing.
It was a nasty situation for sure. The C-Series was/is a superior product, a serious threat to both Boeing and Airbus. These two big boys had deep enough pockets to sell at a loss just to keep Bombardier out of the market. Government was already taking flak for repeated bailouts, and they saw the futility of going up against Boeing and Airbus.
 
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