Rafael Aguado, Juan Díaz, Jorge Gómez, Ana Pérez
Safety is the number-one priority for the air transportation industry, which is the second largest industry sector in the world in regards to revenues after oil and gas. Airports spend billions on safety worldwide, including on safety beacons (called navigational aids) that help pilots land safely. These systems are calibrated periodically from the air to ensure they work and comply with international regulations. Currently, executive airplanes with bulky and expensive on-board sensors are used to perform the calibration from the air. Canard Drones has created CANARD to check navigational aids more efficiently using smart drones instead of manned aircraft. This saves airport managers massive amounts of money by reducing their operational costs and helping prevent lost income due to closed runways. Some other main advantages include the system’s complete lack of environmental impact and risk to human life. CANARD has been selected as one of the most promising European tech solutions by Google´s Startup Next and funded by the European Space Agency’s business incubator programme. It has also participated in the Startupbootcamp in Amsterdam and won the FINODEX, StartupOle, and Expodronica startup competitions!
