DAIR Green Fund - DAIR

DAIR

Dair Green Fund

Applications are now closed. Thank you to everyone that submitted an application.

The DAIR Green Fund will be evaluating submitted proposals that will support Canada’s 2050 net-zero goals within the aerospace and aviation sector and within one of four key pillars.

Energy / Propulsion

Examples:

SAF, hydrogen, electrification

Aircraft Configuration & Systems

Examples:

AAM, eVTOL, drones

Operations

Examples:

Assembly, in‑flight, airport, manufacturing

Advanced Materials

Examples:

Light-weighting, alloys, composites

Current DAIR Green Fund Recipients

HD Aerospace Holdings - Brampton Processing logo

Thank you to our current DAIR Green Fund Review Committee Members from:

  • Bombardier
  • Collins Aerospace
  • Innovitech Inc.
  • National Research Council of Canada (NRC)
  • Pratt & Whitney Canada, retired Consultant
  • University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS)
  • York University Lassonde School of Engineering

Stay up-to-date on the DAIR Green Fund, DAIR events and news by following us on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Facebook.

Read about Green Fund
Success Stories

Past DAIR Green Fund Recipients

Aeroflux Logo
HD Aerospace Holdings - Brampton Processing logo

Thank you to our past DAIR Green Fund Review Committee Members:

  • Bombardier
  • De Havilland Aircraft of Canada Limited
  • Innovitech Inc.
  • National Research Council of Canada (NRC)
  • University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS)

For more information & to discuss this initiative

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          Aeroflux

          (aerofluxbrakes.com)

          Project Title: Research & Design of an Optimized Rotor Alloy for Aircraft Eddy Current Brake Applications

          Project Description: The technology behind Aeroflux's innovative contactless brakes is based on the principle of eddy current braking. Whereas a typical friction brake decelerates an aircraft through friction generated by bringing a moving and non-moving surface (the stator and the rotor) in contact with one another, an eddy current brake does so without the need for any physical contact between the stator and the rotor. Currently, there are alloys present to perform the work but with limited success on life and consistent performance. An optimization of a current alloy or development of a new alloy will be required to provide consistent performance metrics and meet target life expectations for commercial applications.

          Environmental Impact: Frictionless eddy current brakes do not wear, and no brake replacements are required. Eddy brakes produce half the lifetime CO2 emissions of traditional friction brakes.

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          Brampton Processing

          (bramptonprocessing.ca)

          Project Title: Development of Process to Phase-Out Hexavalent Chromium Compounds from Anodizing and Plating Processes

          Project Description: Brampton Processing is developing a process to phase-out toxic Hexavalent Chromium Compounds from its anodizing and plating processes. The goal of the project is to eliminate toxic hexavalent chromium emissions into the environment and replace it with less toxic trivalent chromium emissions.

          Environmental Impact: Reduced toxic emissions in anodizing and plating processes for metal finishing in aircraft manufacturing. This new process will reduce occupational health risks.

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          Burloak Technologies Inc.

          (samuel.com/burloak-technologies)

          Project Title: Development of Tungsten Additive Manufacturing & Heat Treatment Processes for Canadian Aerospace

          Project Description: The development and use of tungsten powder is very nascent for laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing (AM) technology. With recent demand for AM tungsten development within the aerospace/defence industry in Canada for purpose-driven weight balancing parts for helicopters, as well as radiation shielding for electronic components, this project will serve to create an all-Canadian solution to meet this demand. It will develop AM processes at Burloak necessary for the use of tungsten, and the tungsten powder will be sourced locally through Tekna in Canada, which is beneficial for security purposes, as other major suppliers of tungsten come from Russia and China.

          Environmental Impact: Compared to convential manufacturing methods, additive manufacturing provides a reduction in material waste, energy usage and machine emissions.

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          Drone Delivery Canada Corp

          (dronedeliverycanada.com)

          Project Title: Care by Air – Transport of Time Critical Medical Supplies by Remotely Piloted Aircraft (Drone)

          Project Description: The project is a collaboration between Drone Delivery Canada, DSV Air & Sea Inc – Toronto, McMaster University and Halton Healthcare Services Corporation. Through a pilot project, the partners will explore the viability of using remotely piloted aircraft (drones) for the delivery of isotopes and other vital medical supplies from point of production to patients in hospitals, with the aim of alleviating supply chain uncertainties in the transportation of these medical products.

          Environmental Impact: Reduced CO2 emissions from less reliance on traditional aircraft for delivery.

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          HEBÉ

          (hebe.network)

          Project Title: HEBÉ Hydrogen Storage and Management for Use as Aircraft Fuel

          Project Description: HEBÉ Hydrogen is developing techniques for sealing of underground cavities so that green electrolytic hydrogen produced at pressures of up to 35 bar(g) can be safely stored for future processing. A key challenge is to find an affordable way to install underground storage in the most difficult geologies on earth. HEBÉ has partnered with Petra, as the leading trenchless boring expert, to reduce the cost of undergrounding and to make it economically viable. As part of the project, HEBÉ will use Petra’s knowledge in scaled-up cost and technical models. It is anticipated that engineering and field validation works will generate intellectual property registration opportunities for HEBÉ Hydrogen. The project would demonstrate up to two methodologies in this proof-of-concept effort.

          Environmental Impact: The hydrogen-storage repositories will provide 100% availability of green fuel on-site for air transportation in all remote regions.

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          Horizon Aircraft (Design)

          (horizonaircraft.com)

          Project Title: Engineering Design of a Hybrid Power System Novel Power Distribution Scheme

          Project Description: Horizon Aircraft is developing a unique hybrid electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) aircraft. To take off and land vertically, the aircraft uses an array of electrically driven lifting fans located in both the main wings and the canards that draw significant power during this short phase of flight. As such, it is beneficial to have a power distribution schema wherein electrical power for vertical flight is routed from two distinct sources: (1) directly from the generator that is part of the main hybrid electric power system; and (2) from an on-board battery array.

          Environmental Impact: Use of electrical and battery power in hybrid systems will reduce requirements to use emission-causing fuels.

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          Solid Ultrabattery

          (subattery.com)

          Project Title: Development of Lithium-ion Battery for Small Drone and UAV applications

          Project Description: This project is to develop a 5 Ah lithium-ion battery for testing in a small unmanned fixed-wing drone application. Solid Ultrabattery anticipates that high energy-density lithium ion or lithium metal batteries more than 400Wh/kg will be required for aerospace and drone applications, due to high energy demands during takeoff and cruising stages of flight under inclement weather conditions. The initial battery will target 400Wh/kg as a starting point. The goal is to develop a small 5 Ah building block for a much larger battery that can be developed in the future for substantially larger flight vehicles.

          Environmental Impact: Use of lithium batteries will reduce environmental emissions compared to use of traditional fuel sources.

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          OVA

          (ova.ai)

          Project Title: PhygitalX - Remote Training, Unrestricted

          Project Description: PhygitalX is a software used on the latest extended-reality hardware, combining the best of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) to remove the requirement for physical travel in training sessions for aerospace manufacturing or maintenance, while preserving the integrity of the learning experience (a feat otherwise impossible with VR-only or AR-only software). Remote training activities are no longer compromised or restricted – everyone, regardless of physical location, has holistic engagement and presence. Cost savings are significant when remote training sessions are just as good or better than in-person sessions.

          Environmental Impact: Reduction of environmental emissions by making high-quality training possible without the need for travel.

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          Advanced Mobility Products Inc.

          (advancedmobilityproducts.com)

          Project Title: Development of Safe and Reliable Rechargeable Energy Storage System (RESS) for a Solar Battery Electric UAS

          Project Description: The project is to develop Safe and Reliable RESS for Superwake's Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) commercial applications. As Superwake begins its drive towards commercialization of its product, the need for conformity to regulatory standards is critical to the success of the product. This project focuses on a product conformity related to a regulatory framework such as Transport Canada Advisory Circular (AC) No. 922-001 – Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems Safety Assurance. More specifically, a more complex RESS is required in advanced operations such as beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), flying in controlled airspace and near people.

          Environmental Impact: Low carbon footprint and replacement of aero vehicles that run on fossil fuels. The use of smaller solar battery electric drones can replace some applications of small, manned utility aircraft used in commercial applications. The cost to operate these drones would be substantially lower using solar battery electric drones.

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          Columbiad Launch Services Inc.

          (columbiad.ca/research/)

          Project Title: High Altitude Platforms –Autonomous Flight Powered Using Wireless Power Transmission

          Project Description: The project is part of a feasibility study to fly an uninhabited aircraft for very long, multiday missions by providing it with power using a mix of wireless power transmission and solar power. Power is transmitted as microwave energy from a ground-based transmitter and sent to a receiver that is attached to the lower surface of the aircraft wing, which converts it to DC power. The DC power will be used to drive electric motors on the airplane for propulsion, to power the payload and control systems and to charge standby energy-storage units. The project includes modelling, wireless power transmission flight testing using small uninhabited aircraft and performing a life-cycle assessment of high-altitude platforms.

          Environmental Impact: Reduced emissions using alternate clean power source.

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          Plan de Vol International Inc. (FliteX)

          (flitex.net)

          Project Title: Airline Fuel Efficiency using Predictive Analytics

          Project Description: In this project, use of flight time metrics will in turn develop efficient fuel- consumption prediction models using the advances in data training & machine learning historical data sets, while also applying external variables such as winds, precipitation and traffic congestion.

          Environmental Impact: The development of optimal flight paths will enable fuel savings, reduce emissions and carbon footprint of the industry.

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          Promation Engineering Ltd.

          (promation.com)

          Project Title: Enabling Circular Economy through Autonomous Repair and Remanufacturing of High-Value Gas Turbine Blades using Intelligent Laser Directed Energy Deposition

          Project Description: The project focuses on the repair and restoration process of high-value turbine blades by combining the principles of Industry 4.0 through intelligent LDED-PF based AM. Material characterization work in this project includes feedstock analysis, microstructural analysis, mechanical testing and Non Destructive Testing (NDT).

          Environmental Impact: The energy consumption and carbon footprint of using LDED to repair and remanufacture a turbine blade is substantially lower than manufacturing a new turbine blade.

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          RAMPF Composite Solutions Inc.

          (rampf-group.com)

          Project Title: Developing Ultra-lightweight Composite Propeller for Aerospace Applications

          Project Description: The purpose of this project is to develop a low rotational mass moment of inertia propeller, which takes advantage of composite Tailored Fibre Placement (TFP) technology in conjunction with flexible tooling. Such a propeller will  reduce the loads and stresses experienced by the aircraft powertrain – thereby extending the life of the powertrain components.

          Environmental Impact: Lightweighting will create a reduction in greenhouse gases as we enable the reduction of weights and electrification of various transportation industries including aerospace, defence, Urban Air Mobility, UAVs and space vehicles.

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          Superwake

          (superwake.ca)

          Project Title: Arctic Shoreline Mapping Pilot

          Project Description: The purpose of this project is to supply the Department of Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) with high-definition aerial imagery and video of shoreline regions in the Canadian Arctic, which will be used to segment the shoreline into a digital model. Superwake will join a team from ECCC in the Arctic in Summer 2023 to test the effectiveness of their long-endurance solar-powered remotely piloted aerial systems (RPAS) for this application. This project is part of a larger effort by ECCC to evaluate various coastal mapping methodologies, comparing satellite imagery and RPAS to helicopter-based operations, which form the baseline.

          Environmental Impact: Superwake RPAS offers a reduced fuel consumption in the operations, versus the current helicopter option.

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          Tristar Coatings Ltd.

          (tristarcoatings.ca)

          Project Title: Chromate-free, Solvent & Water Based Primers and Integral Fuel Tank Coating for the Aerospace Market

          Project Description: This project will allow testing and certification steps to commence on Tristar Coatings blends of chrome-free water and solvent-borne products.

          Environmental Impact: This project aims to eliminate the chromates in the primers which will  greatly reduce the exposure of all workers involved in the manufacturing, spraying as well as in the shipping  and repair processes. Water-based primers greatly reduce VOCs at the manufacturing and end-use points.

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          Zentek Ltd.

          (zentek.com)

          Project Title: Developing a Passive Icephobic Coating for Dash 8-400 Propellers

          Project Description: Ice is one of the significant challenges that the aviation industry faces. Ice increases the weight of planes, but more importantly changes the aerodynamic profile of wings and propellors. There are two main pathways to reduce the effects of ice: to actively control the ice through heat or mechanical energy during flights, or to provide a passive coating that will allow ice to shed at low kPa. Zentek has developed a patent-pending passive icephobic coating that will be assessed and optimized for the Dash 8-400 propellers.

          Environmental Impact: A passive icephobic coating on a propeller will improve safety, reduce the energy of in-flight de-icing and reduce the complexity of the current active systems that require regular maintenance.

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          Portrait photo of Nacy Barber

          Nancy Barber

          President

          Women in Aerospace Canada

          An aerospace senior executive with over 20 years of in-depth experience in operations, supply chain, and program management, Nancy Barber has spent much of her career in a product development environment involving large-scale clean sheet commercial and business aircraft programs. Nancy owns her own consulting business, Barber Complete Consultancy Inc, and is currently active in the aerospace industry, focused on leadership development, mergers & acquisitions, commercial strategy, product strategy and business development.

          Prior to Nancy establishing BCC Inc., she held the position of Chief Operating Officer, Bombardier Business Aircraft, responsible for planning, assembly, and delivery of the Learjet, Challenger, and Global business aircraft as well as the industrialization strategy of Bombardier’s operational footprint. Nancy also held the role of Vice President, responsible for the Global 7500 and Global 8000, and New Aircraft Studies, where she led proactive management or program milestones and cost commitments supporting the ramp up of the Global 7500 aircraft, the largest purpose-built business aircraft world-wide, and its successful entry into service in 2018.
          Nancy is a passionate promoter of women in aerospace serving as a mentor, coach, and speaker. In 2020, Nancy was named one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women, and the Northern Lights Aero Foundation awarded her with the Elsie Award for Business in recognition of her outstanding contributions to aviation and aerospace in Canada.

          In June 2022, Nancy was appointed President of Women in Aerospace Canada, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to expanding women’s opportunities for leadership and professional development as well as increasing their visibility in the aerospace community by creating a professional network in Canada and across the globe.

          Nancy graduated with an Honors Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Waterloo and has successfully completed the Queen's University Executive Leadership Program. She is published in the Journal of Sport Management as well as the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

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          HEBE

          (hebe.network)

          Project Title: HEBE's Mineral Composite Compressed Gaseous Green Hydrogen Storage Tank (42 bar) Commercialization

          Project Description: HEBE will design, model and perform analysis for a mineral composite pressure vessel system to be used for hydrogen storage. The unique design is aimed to ensure easy transportation and easy set up as underground storage for the aviation sector.

          Environmental Impact: Hydrogen is one of the clean fuel options for the aviation sector to achieve global net-zero goals. HEBE is proactively solving the logistics and storage problem now to prepare for the future need of hydrogen at airports.

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          Brampton Processing

          (bramptonprocessing.ca)

          Project Title: Development of process to Phase-Out Hexavalent Chromium Compounds from Anodizing

          Project Description: This project is developing a process to phase-out toxic Hexavalent Chromium Compounds from its anodizing and plating processes. The goal of the project is to eliminate toxic hexavalent chromium emissions into the environment and replace them with less toxic trivalent chromium emissions.

          Environmental Impact: Eliminating toxic emissions into the environment contributing to net-zero aviation targets.

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          BMP Metals

          (bmpmetals.com)

          Project Title: Project Green Heat Efficiency

          Project Description: This project aims to enhance energy efficiency, reduce operational costs and reduce our carbon footprint by reclaiming heat from the paint line process and introduce a low cure temperature, low volatile organic compounds (VOC) paint, resulting in a reduced carbon footprint from our facility.

          Environmental Impact: By reclaiming heat from an in-house process, BMP will be reducing their carbon footprint in the manufacturing facility.

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          Drone Delivery Canada Corp

          (dronedeliverycanada.com)

          Project Title: Integration and Testing of Onboard Detect and Avoid (DAA) for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Canary Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) Operations

          Project Description: This project will evaluate the capability of an onboard optical DAA system integrated on the Canary drone which alleviates the fixed nature of ground-based systems.

          Environmental Impact: The DAA system will allow the drone to advance remote delivery service in far less complex air spaces, heavily reducing the carbon footprint for delivery companies and supporting the expansion of a time sensitive medical delivery system.

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          Horizon Aircraft (Design)

          (horizonaircraft.com)

          Project Title: Advancement of eVTOL HOVR Wing

          Project Description: Horizon engineering team will build, test and perform data analysis on full scale wing components for their unique and patented fan-in-wing system.

          Environmental Impact: Aircraft burn the most fuel during takeoff, and with the advancement of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, the use of this technology requires far less fuel burn at take-off thus reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

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          Solid Ultrabattery

          (subattery.com)

          Project Title: Advancements in Low-Temperature Performance of Lithium-Ion Batteries

          Project Description: The primary objective of this project is to enhance the low-temperature performance of lithium-ion batteries for small unmanned fixed-wing drones.

          Environmental Impact: These improved batteries aim to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, promote energy efficiency and renewable energy, and support efforts to achieve net-zero aviation goals by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

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          RAMPF Composite Solutions Inc.

          (rampf-group.com)

          Project Title: Advanced Composite Development: Utilizing TFP Technology for Integrating Electro-Thermal Features and Structural Optimization in Composites

          Project Description: This project aims to pioneer a revolutionary approach in composite design by developing a lightweight composite structure integrated with an electro-thermal deicing/heating system, leveraging Tailored Fibre Placement (TFP) technology.

          Environmental Impact: Reduction of energy consumption and improving component life span.

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          FTG

          (ftgcorp.com)

          Project Title: Developing Water-Based Paint Processes for Lightplates in Cockpit Panels

          Project Description: This project aims to develop sustainable water-based paint processes/applications for lightplates used in cockpit products of aerospace applications. The initiative is driven by the goal of reducing Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) emissions, reduction of solvents for urethane-based paint cleaning purposes and enhancing the environmental sustainability of aerospace manufacturing processes.

          Environmental Impact: By producing water-based paints FTG will be using non-hazardous materials, reducing energy consumption due to lower curing temperatures, and will reduce VOC emission levels.

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          GasTOPS

          (gastops.com)

          Project Title: Fuel sensing for aircraft engine thermal management

          Project Description: This project aims to identify and validate feasible approaches to address fuel coke formation from a jet engine fuel source through advanced sensors providing data for diagnosis.

          Environmental Impact: This project contributes to the aviation industry’s net-zero targets in two ways – enabling lower fuel burn and corresponding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and supporting the use of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) that have lower net lifecycle GHG emissions.

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          RACER

          (racerinternational.com)

          Project Title: Developing a Closed Loop Control System for Directed Energy Deposition Machines Based on ML/AI

          Project Description: The proposed project aims to develop an advanced closed-loop monitoring and control system for RACER's prototype, a Canadian engineered and designed Directed Energy Deposition (DED) machine, utilizing machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

          Environmental Impact: The DED machine aims to reduce energy consumption, reduce unnecessary emissions, reduce waste, and promote a circular economy by enabling repair and refurbishment.

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          Volt Carbon Technologies

          (voltcarbontech.com)

          Project Title: Development of high-performance carbon materials for aerospace industries

          Project Description: The objective of this project is to develop high-performance carbon-based materials for the aerospace industry using expandable graphite and graphene made from natural flake graphite.

          Environmental Impact: Graphene composites offer higher strength-to-weight ratios compared to metals and plastics, enabling the production of efficient, aerodynamically optimized designs, improving aircraft fuel efficiency and performance. Graphite's excellent thermal conductivity is crucial for thermal management systems in the electrification of aircraft, supporting the drive towards net-zero emissions.

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