Company Profile

Safran Electronics Canada is located in Peterborough, a town a little over 100km north-east of Toronto, in the province of Ontario, Canada. With the outlying suburbs, greater Peterborough area population is around 100,000, swelling significantly every summer due to the influx of, mainly Toronto, tourists. Peterborough is in the heart of the vacation area called Kawartha Lakes, a beautiful part of Ontario with an abundance of lakes, forests and recreational facilities. The area was originally the home of Ojibwa Indians. In their language “kawartha” means “shiny waters” and the name fits.

At the beginning of World War II, Dowty, a British landing gear manufacturer established a factory in Montréal, which later moved to Ajax, near Toronto, to support the war effort of the Allies. The factory, called Messier-Dowty Inc., has been modernized and expanded. It remains at its original location and is also a part of the SAFRAN Group.

In the early 1980s, Canadian aircraft manufacturer de Havilland awarded Dowty Equipment Ltd in Ajax a contract to design a landing gear for its new Dash-8 turboprop commuter aircraft. An innovation to be introduced on this aircraft was an electronically controlled, hydraulically actuated nosewheel steering. At the time, larger aircraft used purely hydraulic systems, while smaller aircraft achieved directional control on the ground by differential braking and/or thrust. Since Dowty did not have the capability to design electronics, a contract was awarded to a small, privately owned, electronics firm in Peterborough, called Simtron Ltd. During the development program Simtron ran into financial difficulties and was subsequently purchased by Dowty Equipment, becoming its fully owned subsidiary, called Dowty Electronics.

The resulting product, manufactured to this day, found its way onto three de Havilland Dash-8 models DHC-8-100, 200 and 300. Its derivatives were put on Gulfstream G IV and Canadair (later Bombardier) CL601, 604 and 605. Recently, the controller was upgraded and installed on Bombardier’s BD100 business jet. An upgraded version was also used on the X-32 JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) Boeing Military’s demonstrator aircraft. By the end of the 1980s, Boeing Military awarded Dowty a contract to design and manufacture landing gear system for the revolutionary tilt-rotor aircraft V-22 Osprey. Dowty Electronics, was tasked with the development of the landing gear control unit. In the anticipation of the manufacturing requirements of this program, the company, about 25 people strong, moved to a new plant located on the outskirts of Peterborough, where it is to this day.

In 1989 Dowty Electronics won a contract to design and build a nosewheel steering controller for the new Bombardier regional jet CRJ200. More than 1,200 controllers, known as ADSC, were built. In the course of CRJ200 certification testing, Bombardier discovered a problem, which threatened the continuation of flight testing. A very quick response was needed. Dowty Electronics took on the challenge and during Christmas 1992, in less than 2 weeks, designed, built and delivered what is now called a PFC (Pitch Feel Controller) at Bombardier Test Centre in Wichita, Kansas. As a result, flight trials could continue without delay. The PFC generates an artificial feel of the aircraft forces in the pilot’s stick. It also provides automatic horizontal stabilizer trim in response to the position of flaps to lower pilots’ workload.

Following CRJ200, Dowty Electronics participated in numerous programs, such as the nosewheel steering for the British Aerospace Hawk MK60/100, propeller de-icing controller for Lockheed C130J Hercules, Alenia C27 and Japanese ShinMaywa US-1A Kai. Dowty Electronics also worked on several mass transit (train) programs, but eventually decided to focus on aerospace only.

In 1991 Dowty Electronics changed its name to Dowty Aerospace Peterborough (DAP), to reflect the new image the company was trying to put forward in the then depressed market. Despite the best efforts, in 1992 Dowty was purchased by the British TI Group in a hostile takeover.

An important event that took place in 1991 was a contract awarded to us by Pratt & Whitney Canada, to develop a health monitor (FMR – Fault Monitor Recorder) for their JT15D turbofan military engine, which others said it could not be done in the allotted time. The project was so successful, P&WC awarded Dowty Aerospace Peterborough their prestigious award for performance.

The success of the FMR opened the door to a long term relationship with P&WC and started the development of the DCU (Data Collection Unit) for the PT6 line of engines. Today, we manufacture about 20 different configurations of the DCU and the line continues to be expanded with new features and for additional engines.

In 1995, TI and the French Snecma Group entered into a joint venture to manufacture landing gear. Messier-Bugatti, fully owned by Snecma and the old Dowty’s rival, and Dowty thus became Messier-Dowty. DAP, as it was owned by Dowty, became a part of the joint venture. At the time, DAP employed less than 40 people. Also, the bulk of our business had been the landing gear electronics, with Messier-Dowty being the prime contractor. With the joint venture, DAP became Messier-Dowty Electronics.

A couple of years later, Snecma purchased the TI shares and became the sole owner of Messier-Dowty. By now, Messier-Dowty Electronics grew to about 80 employees. It was becoming increasingly obvious, that to grow, M-DE needed to diversify and to associate with other Snecma electronics business units. Technology sharing across Snecma Group was a desired benefit. The new millennium saw Messier-Dowty Electronics becoming a part of Snecma Control Systems (SCS), then a division of Snecma Moteurs. The subsequent Snecma-wide reorganization attached SCS to Hispano-Suiza and the Peterborough business unit change its name in 2002 to Hispano-Suiza Canada (H-SC).

The most important benefit of H-SC alignment with Hispano-Suiza was the technical credibility. This enabled us to win a break-through contract with Pratt & Whitney Canada for development of a new, low cost, highly adaptable FADEC to control Pratt & Whitney’s new, very ambitious line of PW6xx engines in turbofan, turboprop and turboshaft configurations.

The project, known internally as EEC (Electronic Engine Controller) will provide the electronic controller at a fraction of today’s cost. It already exists in five derivative configurations: PW625 demonstrator, PW615 for Cessna Mustang business jet, Z8 for Changhi helicopter and PW610 for the Eclipse business jet. The fifth configuration has nothing to do with engines. Thanks to EEC’s universal, reconfigurable architecture, it is being developed as a combination nosewheel steering/landing gear control and indication system for the Dassault F7X business jet.

In the spring of 2005 another corporate reorganization took place. Snecma merged with a major French electronics manufacturer Sagem for a new company SAFRAN employing well over 50,000 people world-wide. SAFRAN comprises four core businesses: Propulsion, Aerospace Equipment, Defense Security and Communications.

On January 1, 2006, Hispano-Suiza Canada became Hispano-Suiza Canada Inc., an independent business unit, fully owned by Hispano-Suiza in France. In turn, Hispano-Suiza was a member of the SAFRAN Aircraft Equipment branch.

Effective February 1, 2009 the board of the company voted to change the name of the company to Safran Electronics Canada Inc. We thus joined the Safran Electronics organization in France. This new organization groups some 1500 electronics and critical software specialists from the Safran group. This new organization develops, produces or buys and supports printed circuit boards and electronics control units. The Safran groups products are used in a number of systems including landing gear, avionics, navigation, optronics, etc. They are featured in some of today's most prestigious programs, including Boeing and Airbus, helicopters and military usage.

What’s in Safran Electronics Canada’s future? Our past success has been the result of the unfailing commitment and dedication of, today, over 125 employees. In accord with the SAFRAN-wide "Safran +", it is our goal to be recognized by our industry as its preferred supplier of sophisticated aerospace electronics, by our employees as their preferred employer and by our owners as an excellent, profitable performer. As long as these objectives remain our highest priority we shall continue to improve our products to increase profitability and to stay at the technological cutting edge. We shall also continue to improve our employees’ competence through training. And we shall not forget to continue to improve the environment, health and safety for us all.