Spar Aerospace

SPAR Aerospace was a Canadian aerospace company. It produced equipment for the Canadian Space Agency to be used in cooperation with NASA's Space Shuttle program, most notably the Canadarm remote manipulator system.

It's robotics division is today part of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates as MD Robotics, a subsidiary of its MDA Space Missions division. As part of MDA, it developed the Mobile Servicing System ("Canadarm2") for the International Space Station.

History

The Edmonton-based company L-3 Communications/SPAR (Special Products and Applied Research) Aerospace Ltd. was formed by the merger of de Havilland Canada’s Special Products division (i.e. Alouette 1) and Avro Canada's Applied Research unit (i.e. CF-105 Arrow). In 1967 SPAR was bought out by its senior management and in 1967 shares were issued to the public. SPAR Aerospace Ltd. expanded into Western Canada by taking over CAE Aviation Services, formerly Northwest Industries (NWI) Limited, in Edmonton, Alberta. Shortly after, SPAR's robotics division located in Brampton, Ontario was acquired by MacDonald Dettwiler, while the MRO division in Edmonton was acquired by L-3 Communications.

SPAR Aerospace Ltd. maintained the Canadian Air Force's CC-130 Hercules for several decades, including performing of the Center Wing and Outer Wing replacement programs, Progressive Structural Inspection (PSI) program, Tanker program, Avionics Upgrade Program (AUP) and Hercules Airframe and Wiring System Refurbishment (HAWSR) programs. SPAR's major projects included the complete overhaul of the Royal New Zealand Air Force's 40-year-old Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft. Other customers included the Royal Norwegian Air Force, United States Coast Guard, and Greece's Hellenic Air Force. SPAR performed several avionics upgrades and a Depot Level Inspection and Repair (DLIR) for the Royal Canadian Air Force CL-41 Tutor aircraft flown by the Snowbirds acrobatic team.

SPAR also constructed satellites — Anik-E, Olympus 1s (L-SAT), and Radarsat 1.[1]

SPAR's Edmonton facilities and workforce (both the City Center and the International Airport locations) were permanently shut down at the end of summer 2009 after over four decades of production and service.

Facilities

See also

References

  1. ↑ Funding Universe

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, May 02, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.