“Aviation Champions” provides an insider’s look at the leaders and innovators driving the future of flight. From commercial airlines and private aviation to aerospace engineering, airports, and beyond, each episode features engaging conversations that reveal how these professionals stay ahead of evolving trends, navigate challenges, and elevate the standards of the aviation world. In today’s episode, our hosts, Morgan Yonge and Miranda Gahn, speak with Nigel Waterhouse of Can-Am Aerospace
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Transcript:
Speaker 1
Welcome back to another episode of Aviation Champions, where we highlight those in the aviation industry who are making an impact.
Speaker 1
I’m Morgan Yonge, joined, as always, by my co-host Miranda Gahn with Lex Aero. How are you?
Speaker 2
I’m well. Good morning. Happy to be here.
Speaker 1
Thank you. So will you introduce us to our fabulous guest today?
Speaker 2
Yes, absolutely. We’re here today with Nigel Waterhouse. He is with Can-Am Aerospace. And we’re excited to have him on the show. Good morning. Nigel. Well. Thank you. So tell us a little bit about your business, your company and what you do in the aviation industry.
Speaker 2 (Guest)
Okay, so my company, Can-Am Aerospace, is a, aeronautical engineering consulting company, and we specialize in design and certification of aircraft, modifications to aircraft and repairs.
Speaker 2
So tell us, how did you get started in this business?
Speaker 2 (Guest)
Well, from a very early age, I was that kid who used to ride his bike to the airport and, take pictures of airplanes taking off and landing, and, I moved from there to, an apprentice aircraft mechanic in charge of a broom sweeping hangar floors and, eventually became, a licensed aircraft mechanic. And that kind of evolved into, university degree and then moving into the aeronautical engineering business and, eventually into the aircraft certification business.
Speaker 2 (Guest)
It was, it’s been a 30 year plus adventure.
Speaker 2
Well, that’s impressive. Aircraft certification. That can be very challenging. And we’re talking about, engineering design and modifications. What are you seeing in the industry? What are your pain points and challenges?
Speaker 2 (Guest)
The biggest challenge in the in my side of the aircraft verification and modification business is the problem with having to reverse engineer everything because we’re not an OEM. And in terms of being Boeing or Airbus or Bombardier, for example. And so when we or when our clients want to modify an airplane, data is always the issue.
Speaker 2 (Guest)
And because we don’t have access to OEM data or in many cases we don’t, we have to reverse engineer everything to kind of work our way back to the original data that was used to certify the airplane, like, for example, determining flight loads, which is important for determining structural strength.
Speaker 2
Sure. Well, that does sound challenging. So when we spoke offline or off camera, you were telling me about a project that you’re working on, where you do a lot of changes to cabin interiors, which I thought was very interesting. Could you tell us a little bit about that?
Speaker 1
Okay. We’ll cut that part out and I’ll just have Miranda ask the question one more time. Yeah. That’s okay.
Speaker 1
The beauty of digital media.
Speaker 1
All right.
Speaker 1
Okay. No worries.
Speaker 1
All right. I’ll count you in and just have you ask that same question. Okay. All right. In three, two, one.
Speaker 2
So, Nigel, off air, you were telling me about some of the projects that you’re working on and trends that you’re seeing regarding redesign and improvement of, cabins for the airlines. Tell me a little bit more about that.
Speaker 2 (Guest)
Yeah. So cabin interior refurbishment is quite busy right now. And the main reason for that is the manufacturers Boeing, Airbus, they’re not developing new aircraft and they have a huge backlog of deliveries.
Speaker 2 (Guest)
So airlines are stuck with the aircraft with aircraft that have now and some of them are starting to have a little bit tired inside. They have outdated interiors, cabin entertainment systems, even carry on baggage stowage like the overhead bins.
Speaker 2 (Guest)
So there’s a lot of work with airlines to update the interiors. And as part of a cabin interior, flammability testing is one of the big things that we have to do.
Speaker 2 (Guest)
So if we take a panel that’s in an airplane, say, a galley or a wall or a divider or a class divider, they end up being refinished with new coatings. And so that panel with the coating has to actually be burnt, tested.
Speaker 2 (Guest)
And in order to do that, you have to you have to have the original panel. And unfortunately, a lot of the companies that manufacture the interiors to these aircraft, they don’t want to share their business.
Speaker 2 (Guest)
They want to sell airlines new interiors and not allow them to go to third party organizations that can manufacture custom stuff. So sometimes we actually have to destroy a panel in the airplane to act to get, burn samples from it and then go and repair the damage that’s done.
Speaker 2
Wow.
Speaker 1
Well, so this is, mission critical, if you will. Is this happening across the entire airline industry right now? Not just with Can-Am, but all or all airlines dealing with this.
Speaker 2 (Guest)
Yeah, airlines that want to renew their interiors but don’t necessarily want to work directly with the original manufacturer of the cabin interior that they currently have. So if they want to go to third party organizations that can manufacture these things, then they have similar problems.
Speaker 1
Wow. Well, it’s amazing that you’re doing the work that you’re doing to make this happen and create a safer flight for all of these people who are flying. This is a big deal.
Speaker 2
Yeah. And I think that bit about, refurbishing the interior is something that generally a lot of people can relate to.
Speaker 2
What are the what are the what do you think our audience would find most surprising in terms of safety with regard to the interior of the cabin?
Speaker 2 (Guest)
Well, again, if we look at all of the, accidents that have happened recently, fire is always, the biggest risk to passenger safety.
Speaker 2 (Guest)
An aircraft crash can be survivable. And but if there’s a fire, the fire is often the thing that, causes the most injury and casualties.
Speaker 2 (Guest)
I would say that probably the biggest safety risk on a airplane is what the passengers, probably every passenger brings on board. And that is a portable electronic device with lithium ion batteries, especially the, power banks.
Speaker 2 (Guest)
There was an incident recently on, China Airlines aircraft where a power bank actually caught fire in an overhead bin and had produced a significant fire.
Speaker 2
Wow.
Speaker 1
Well, they.
Speaker 2
Well, that makes a lot of sense. It’s very curious. Well, last question. What do you want our audience to take away from your business and your and your expertise in the industry?
Speaker 2 (Guest)
Well, so I as I said, we specialize in certification of aircraft. And in Canada we are very flexible in that we can actually work with companies anywhere in the world.
Speaker 2 (Guest)
So if there’s an aircraft flying anywhere and you want to put a custom interior in it, you want to install satellite communication systems or, new in-flight management or, cabin entertainment. We can take care of it.
Speaker 2 (Guest)
The other thing I want to say also, is that. We spend as a, as a, as an industry, we spend a lot of time and effort in making sure the aircraft are safe.
Speaker 2 (Guest)
The chances of being involved in a air accident or 1 in 19,000,000, you have probably a better chance of winning the lottery than you do being involved in the incident.
Speaker 2 (Guest)
And in most cases, you know, the aircraft are very safe and you don’t need to worry about flying.
Speaker 1
Yeah. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us today and giving us a little peace of mind at the same time. I appreciate your time, Nigel.
Speaker 2
Thank you so much. Yeah.
Speaker 1
And, Miranda, thank you, as always, for being my co-host.
Speaker 2
My pleasure. Thank you.
Speaker 1
And viewers, thank you for tuning in to another episode of Aviation Champions. If you want more information on Nigel and can am head on over to Industry champs.com. We have it all right there and we’ll see you in the next episode of Aviation Champions.
