Horizon Aircraft Advances Dual-Use Certification Path Through Cert Center Canada Partnership

Hori­zon Air­craft has advanced the dual-use cer­ti­fi­ca­tion path­way for its hybrid-elec­tric Cavorite X7 VTOL air­craft, as part of its ongo­ing part­ner­ship with Cert Cen­ter Cana­da (3C).

The com­pa­ny has been tar­get­ing dual-use cer­ti­fi­ca­tion from the begin­ning, say­ing a high-speed, qui­eter VTOL air­craft would sig­nif­i­cant­ly improve both civ­il and defense mis­sions.

Part­ner­ing ear­ly with 3C, Canada’s only inde­pen­dent flight test and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion Design Approval Orga­ni­za­tion (DAO) approved by Trans­port Cana­da, it enabled the inte­gra­tion of com­pre­hen­sive
dual-use cer­ti­fi­ca­tion con­sid­er­a­tions into the Company’s ini­tial design, lever­ag­ing 3C’s exten­sive
expe­ri­ence across mil­i­tary and civil­ian pro­grams.

Dr. John Maris, Founder of 3C, said: “The dual-use cer­ti­fi­ca­tion path­way requires spe­cif­ic con­sid­er­a­tions such as design for com­pli­ance to applic­a­ble mil­i­tary and civil­ian stan­dards as well as devel­op­ment test­ing and eval­u­a­tion tai­lored to unique mil­i­tary oper­a­tional sce­nar­ios.

Through 3C’s guid­ance, Hori­zon Air­craft has care­ful­ly designed the Cavorite X7 for dual-use cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and we are tru­ly priv­i­leged to be includ­ed as an inte­gral part of this project from incep­tion through to com­mer­cial and mil­i­tary devel­op­ment.”

Devel­op­ing a stream­lined path­way to dual-use cer­ti­fi­ca­tion is rel­e­vant now more than ever as the Gov­ern­ment of Cana­da pri­or­i­tizes nation­al secu­ri­ty and sov­er­eign­ty through the pro­cure­ment of Cana­di­an air­craft and tech­nolo­gies, as out­lined in its Defence Indus­tri­al Strat­e­gy, launched in Feb­ru­ary of this year.

Hori­zon Air­craft Co-Founder and CEO Bran­don Robin­son, said: “As our gov­ern­ment looks to invest in Cana­di­an aero­space OEMs, our strong rela­tion­ship with 3C will be impor­tant to ensure we remain on track for dual-use cer­ti­fi­ca­tion.

“Their deep expe­ri­ence with nov­el aero­space tech­nolo­gies, a track record span­ning dozens of advanced mil­i­tary and civil­ian pro­grams, and a for­ward-look­ing abil­i­ty to antic­i­pate reg­u­la­to­ry evo­lu­tion makes them a crit­i­cal part­ner for our Com­pa­ny.

Flight Test Cen­tre of Excel­lence (3C), estab­lished by Mar­in­vent Cor­po­ra­tion, is Canada’s only Trans­port Cana­da Approved Inde­pen­dent Flight Test and Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion Design Approval Orga­ni­za­tion (DAO).

Serv­ing both civil­ian and defence aero­space mar­kets, 3C spe­cial­izes in flight test, cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, R&D, and emerg­ing aero­space tech­nol­o­gy inno­va­tion. With unmatched capa­bil­i­ties, assets, and access to intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty via its sis­ter com­pa­nies, 3C sup­ports end-to-end flight test­ing and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion solu­tions to meet Canada’s grow­ing defence and civ­il aero­space needs.