A UAV, or unmanned aerial vehicle, is a remotely piloted aircraft that flies without a human flight crew on board the aircraft. These types of aircraft are versatile and may carry cameras, sensors, and other detecting devices to search for and locate data of almost any type.
Unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) were originally developed for military use, and have become well known for their surveillance and ordinance delivery functions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Less known are the new capabilities that UAVs offer in civil and non-military applications. Forest fire assessment, geophysical surveying, agricultural monitoring, and wildlife tracking are just a few of the emerging uses.
UAV expertise is still somewhat focused on military designs and programs. But vehicles designed for defense missions are not well suited to many civilian uses, being very highly specified, and often too expensive to operate commercially. As a result, opportunities exist for specialist and niche players to claim a stake in an entirely new field of civil unmanned aerial systems (UAS). In Canada, as in other countries, a developer and user community is emerging to take advantage of UAV solutions for data gathering and other functions. But, with vast geographical areas of low population, Canada has unique opportunity and need for UAV technologies now. This emerging business is the target of Universal Wing Technologies Inc.
