Alberta-based company develops 'game changing' icing technology for aviation industry

Local company teams up with Boeing A small company from Villeneuve Airport caught Boeing's eye with its cold-weather drone technology.

Work being done by Alberta company Pegasus, based in Sturgeon County, has gotten the attention of Boeing.

"Boeing is always looking for companies that show great innovation, great technology development," said Charles 'Duff' Sullivan, president of Boeing Canada.

"We're extremely honoured that they're able to actually share this publicly, the work we've been able to do with them,” added the founder & CEO of Pegasus, Cole Rosentreter.

Pegasus has developed a "game changing" new technology for the aviation industry called Motion Icing Detection Alert System (MIDAS).

"We developed this technology that allows us to actually detect icing buildup in real-time,” Rosentreter said.

"This allows us to basically peel and patch onto any surface on an aircraft … to give you real time alerts and life-saving warnings at the very early onset of icing conditions," Rosentreter said.

He said icing is one of the biggest hazards and costs for the aviation industry.

"For any aircraft if the weather forecast calls that there might be potential icing conditions in the region, unless you have an aircraft that's over-engineered like a Boeing 737, you can't actually fly through that," Rosentreter said.

"So aircraft get diverted, it's a huge cost and if aircraft aren't sure, they don't take off at all," he added.

Pegasus launched in 2018. It developed autonomous aircraft to connect people on the front lines of major disasters like wildfires, with real-time information.

"In order to be able to do that as an Alberta-based company you actually have to be able to fly all year-round to have a viable business," said Rosentreter.

A challenge with year-round flights was icing.

"Without a pilot on board we can't actually look out the window and see if we're building up icing and do something about it, so drones aren't allowed to fly in low forecasted icing conditions," he said.

For the past few years Pegasus has been working on the MIDAS technology with Boeing.

It has already been installed and is operational on Canada's CH147 Chinook helicopter fleet.

"This is a game changer for us," Sullivan said. "Now we can consider going into different environments because of what Pegasus has added to our capability."

"When you put it on an aircraft like the CH147 Chinook helicopter here in Canada, this allows the pilots to have a piece of information that they've never had previously," said Rosentreter, adding it will allow for smarter and faster decisions.

"This will actually change how aviation around the world works," Rosentreter said.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's David Ewasuk