It is not to justify its name that the small airline company Québec Aéronature has tackled the development of a light seaplane with electric propulsion.
Posted at 9:00 a.m.
It is rather a long-standing challenge for its founding president Ghislain Buisson.
Because nothing predisposes a seaplane to fly with an electric motor. “It’s a bad plane,” asserts the pilot.
Its floats, “like two big canoes”, add weight, increase aerodynamic drag, require a lot of power at take-off, in short, everything to affect performance and shorten autonomy.
To make life even more complicated, Ghislain Buisson chose to power a light seaplane, the BushCaddy R-120, designed more than 20 years ago by Quebecer Jean-Eudes Potvin.
“He is still alive, he lives in Lac-Saint-Jean, slips in the passage Ghislain Buisson. I spoke to him on the phone and he is completely enthusiastic. He wants to come see us after winter. »
The BushCaddy R-120 is an ultralight aircraft in kit form, with a tubular structure and riveted aluminum skin. Apart from its fuel and its two occupants, the small device has practically no carrying capacity.
“We give ourselves the worst starting conditions! », Rejoices almost Ghislain Buisson. “We really left with all the handicaps in the world, but we find that this is precisely what is motivating. »
his beginnings
When he was barely 25 years old and still living in France, Ghislain Buisson had built his first plane as a kit, and already had “this ambition to motorize it electric”.
He followed his Quebec spouse to Canada, flew for Air Canada Express, then followed his heart once again by founding his own small specialized flight school, Québec Aéronature, in 2018.
It introduces amateur and even professional pilots, often European, to the techniques of flying on float planes, on skis or on big all-terrain wheels. While the common procedure for simulating an engine failure in flight consists of restarting the engine at full throttle at a respectful distance from the ground, “we land in the field for real, he illustrates, our plane is equipped to that “.
Over the past year, Ghislain Buisson has expanded its services to air taxi in the Laurentians. His company owns two Piper CA-18s and a Cessna 172. Besides himself, he employs another full-time pilot and a third part-time.
Nothing to land him in gold, however.
Also, the electric seaplane project is mainly financed by enthusiasm.
“This project has been in my head for 20 years. A year ago, I thought maybe it was a good time to go. I talked about it with my students, with my clients, who, little by little, all become friends. »
Among these student-friends were a Bombardier test pilot, a mechanical project manager, an electrician: “There you go! “, he sums up, as if the adventure went without saying.
The small team has enlisted the collaboration of a professor of mechanical engineering from the University of Sherbrooke, David Rancourt, who is himself working on solutions for aeronautical electric motors with his students.
They are developing “the world’s first light electric seaplane”, in the words of Ghislain Buisson. The nuance is in the adjective “light”. He concedes that a British Columbia company has taken a similar step on the beefy Beaver bush plane. “It’s a nice project, but they have some leeway,” he said. A Beaver, it can take batteries, because it’s a truck. We have a Toyota Tercel. We can’t put anything on our plane. »
But that doesn’t stop them from trying. They removed the engine and the tanks, replacing them with a system combining electric motor, controller and pilot-machine interface, designed by the Slovenian manufacturer Pipistrel.
A first set of batteries will be placed in the engine compartment, just in front of the firewall, and a second will be placed behind the seats, their distance allowing the load to be balanced. The cabin floor must be reinforced accordingly.
“We are at the 3D modeling of the components and the physical production of certain key parts such as the engine support”, specifies Ghislain Buisson.
Even the propeller needs to be replaced. The old standard aluminum propeller, whose weight serves as a flywheel to maintain the engine speed, will give way to an ultralight carbon fiber propeller.
The engine and propeller were sold, to help fund the project.
“We don’t have a budget for that. Québec Aéronature is working well, but I can’t develop it with my own funds yet. We are looking for sponsors. »
Business goals
Passion does not exclude business goals. “Developing this aircraft and being pioneers will enable a lot of communication around Québec Aéronature,” explains the entrepreneur.
The next step will be to motorize a four-seater BushCaddy.
“Our goal is to develop an electric solution that is adaptable to any small aircraft,” he continues.
“If we get there – and we’re going to get there – it’s sure that we’ll move towards certification and marketing of this solution. »
However, he recognizes that the goal is far away.
For the moment, the little BushCaddy R-120, acquired in Lac-Saint-Jean last October, is dismantled in a garage in Mont-Saint-Hilaire, where it undergoes a regular scrubbing for a public presentation to be held in the Mail Montenach shopping center in Beloeil from February 28 to March 6.
Ghislain Buisson hopes to carry out the first static tests in July and the first flight in October. “Every time I talk about it, there’s always a smirk to say: they’ll never get there. »
But he repeats the words of Pierre-Georges Latécoère, initiator of Aéropostale – the epic air mail line for which Saint-Exupéry flew: “I did all the calculations and I studied everything: our project is unachievable. There is only one thing left to do: make it happen. »
First New York breakthrough for BrainBox AI
PHOTO ANGELA WEISS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
BrainBox AI has just achieved a first breakthrough in New York.
As its name does not suggest, the Montreal firm BrainBox AI specializes in the control and management of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in large buildings. Its name rather refers to its use of “the most advanced artificial intelligence in the world in the real estate sector”, according to the words of the company, which has just achieved a first breakthrough in New York. It has just announced the installation of its technology in a Class A commercial building located at 45 Broadway Avenue in Lower Manhattan, a district whose name does not refer to low-rise buildings. The 32-storey commercial building, built in 1983 and owned by Cammeby’s International, offers the Montreal firm its first New York showcase. This first is all the more strategic since New York City adopted an ambitious plan in 2019 to reduce harmful emissions from commercial buildings. One of its elements, Local Law 97, will impose new limits for energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions by 2024. Founded in 2017 and based in Montreal, BrainBox AI has more than 100 employees.
Vision Marine Technologies will rent its electric boats in Florida
Vision Marine Technologies, manufacturer of the Bruce 22 and Fantail 217 models in particular, is not afraid of salt water. The Montreal manufacturer will expand its rental activities in Florida, after the success obtained in California by its first establishment. The future rental center will be located in a new complex called Waves at Dania Beach, in the city of the same name, on the southeast coast of Florida. The contract that Vision Marine concluded with the promoters of Waves at Dania Beach guarantees it offices and places for 25 electric boats. Vision Marine Technologies had opened a first rental center named Vision Electric Boat Rental, in the Lido Marina Village, in Newport Beach, California. It quickly experienced success and then rapid growth. Initially 4 boats strong, its fleet now has 30, and 5 others, in the process of being built, will be added next March. In 2020, Vision Electric Boat Rental had attracted 8,000 quiet boating enthusiasts. By 2021, 13,000 customers had sailed under its flag, for annualized revenues of $4.3 million.
Record shortage of employees in automotive service trades
SMEs in the automotive services sector are down for lack of employees in the tank. For many trades, the labor shortage is reaching record levels in Quebec. This is noted by the specialized website Auto-jobs.ca, which indicates that it has never received as many requests for vacancies as at the moment. Mechanics and apprentice mechanics, who represent 17.7% of the positions currently posted, are particularly in demand. They are followed by sales advisers (14.9%) and technical advisers (10.6%). Low-skilled positions, such as service attendants, claims or parts clerks, and laundry and detailing attendants, have become virtually impossible to fill, said Emmanuelle Bourque, account manager for Auto- Jobs.ca. “Yes, we are really seeing a marked shortage of manpower,” confirms Danielle Le Chasseur, director of CSMO-Auto (Sectoral committee for the work of automotive services), who notes that the problem was already observed before the pandemic. Some more remote regions, such as the North Shore, are particularly affected, she said. “There are many companies which, because of this problem, would like to recruit from abroad. The sector brings together 18,000 SMEs, the vast majority too small to maintain a human resources manager who would take charge of recruitment.
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They are remote, but all the more important: eight manufacturing and service companies from the Côte-Nord and Nord-du-Québec, suppliers to contractors in the mining and forestry sectors, will benefit from a diagnostic program which will enable them to increase their performance and competitiveness. This initiative is promoted by STIQ, a multi-sector business association, thanks to financial support of $355,000 granted by the Société du Plan Nord.