Through its Aeronautical Product Development Technologies program (APDT), the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) has shortened the time-to-market for new aeronautical products by three months. To achieve this goal, the NRC relied on 16 enhanced testing technologies to accelerate the certification process, including the NRC's world-class wind tunnel and flight testing, structural testing and engine testing facilities.

"Aerospace companies are faced with unprecedented global competition to deliver new products to market on time, yet evaluating and refining a particularly innovative product can take longer than ever as certification requirements imposed by airworthiness authorities get stricter," says Jerzy Komorowski, General Manager, Aerospace at the NRC. "To help ease this pressure, the NRC develops solutions for the aerospace industry at the post-launch stage of aeronautical product development, recognizing that certification requirements are more expensive than in any other industry."

To date, through the APDT program , the NRC has served 43 Canadian and international clients, and certified more than 24 newly developed products. With the recent addition of prototyping to its service offerings to address technology demonstrators, new fuels certification, additive manufacturing certification of secondary parts, hybrid propulsion and systems integration, the NRC is now in a position to help even more clients move more quickly through the aircraft product certification process.

To ensure it aligns with industry needs, the APTD program takes its strategic direction from an industry-led advisory board made up of the national airworthiness regulator Transport Canada and six major aerospace companies: Bombardier Aerospace, Bell Helicopter, CAE, Heroux-Devtek, Pratt & Whitney Canada, and Siemens Canada.