The National Research Council Canada Institute for Aerospace Research (NRC Aerospace) generally doesn’t engage in the sort of fundamental research commonly done at the university level. Instead, it occupies a sort of a middle ground between academia and industry, filling an innovation gap as wide as three technology readiness levels (TRLs). As a result, it engages primarily in what Dr. Ibrahim Yimer calls mission-oriented research. “The goal is always [keeping] the end user in mind, even if we do innovative type research,” he said.
For example, NRC Aerospace (Hall 4 Stand C19c) works with a partnership between Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce called Glacier LLC on a large-engine test facility in Thompson, Manitoba, set to open this autumn. NRC’s role centers on icing research at the facility, where it installed an icing mast capable of producing a cloud of supercooled liquid droplets. The facility carries the capacity to hold engines producing up to 150,000 pounds of thrust.
