The Aviation Centre of Excellence, or ACE, is the

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...

department facility for

Confederation College Confederation College is a provincially funded college of applied arts and technology in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1967, and has campuses in Dryden, Fort Frances, Greenstone, Kenora, Marathon, Sioux Lookout, Red Lake a ...

The building consists of two

hangars A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

, classrooms, shops, labs, and offices for the three aviation programs available at the School of Aviation.

Origin

In the late 1990s,

relocated its programs for Flight Management,

Aircraft Maintenance Aircraft maintenance is the performance of tasks required to ensure the continuing airworthiness of an aircraft or aircraft part, including overhaul, inspection, replacement, defect rectification, and the embodiment of modifications, compliance w ...

, and

Aerospace Manufacturing An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a high technology industry. ...

in one larger facility where students would have new equipment and facilities.

Derek Burney Derek Hudson Burney, OC (born 1939) for a time served as Canada's ambassador to the US, and was political strategist for both the government of Brian Mulroney and of Stephen Harper. He was for a time an executive or director in private industry ...

, was the CEO and President of CAE.

Air Canada Air Canada is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Canada by the size and passengers carried. Air Canada maintains its headquarters in the borough of Saint-Laurent, Montreal, Quebec. The airline, founded in 1937, provides scheduled and ...

donated one of its retired

Douglas DC-9-32 The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is an American five-abreast single-aisle aircraft designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was initially produced by the developer company as the Douglas DC-9 until August 1967 and then by McDonnell Douglas. After ...

aircraft (C-FTLT) which arrived for the grand opening celebrations. The aircraft landed with Confederation College emblems in addition to the Air Canada tail paint. The aircraft would later be painted in classic Air Canada colours for a movie shoot. The aircraft eventually fell into disrepair and neglect, and would be scrapped in 2022. During the scrapping process, part of the aircraft caught fire, necessitating the response of airport fire trucks. One engine went to the school’s maintenance program, while various signage, instruments, and small pieces of the fuselage were claimed by staff and students. Construction of ACE began in 2002, and the building was completed in time for 2003 classes. Confederation College Aviation Centre of Excellence has been voted as the "Best Aviation College" in a poll by Aviation Canada.

Location

The Aviation Centre of Excellence is located at

Thunder Bay International Airport Thunder Bay Airport is an airport in the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. With 108,130 aircraft movements in 2012, it was the fourth busiest airport in Ontario and the 16th busiest airport in Canada. During the same year, more than 761,0 ...

, the third-busiest airport in the province of

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. The structure is located on the north side of runway 25 and adjacent to the

Ornge Ornge (formerly Ontario Air Ambulance Corporation and Ontario Air Ambulance Service) is a Canadian not-for-profit corporation and registered charity that provides air ambulance and associated ground transportation services for the province of ...

Hangar. The centre has an apron and taxiway to the runway.

Programs

There are three full-time post-secondary programs offered at ACE. * Aerospace Manufacturing Engineering Technician / Technologist * Aviation Technician-Aircraft Maintenance * Aviation Flight Management The unofficial slogan of the Aviation Centre is "Build it, Fly it, Maintain it", relating to the three respective programs. ACE is heavily supported by companies such as Bombardier, Levaero, Jazz, Bearskin Airlines and Wasaya Airways. ACE has hosted the world-renowned Canadian Forces Snowbirds several times and various pilots and mechanics on the team were alumni.

Fleet

ACE has a fleet of sixteen aircraft used for flight training; consisting of four types of Cessna aircraft. In addition, the school has two advanced flight training devices (or non-motion simulators). One is a level 6

Frasca Frasca International, Inc., is an American manufacturer of flight simulation training devices, with over 3000 training devices delivered in approximately 70 countries throughout the world. Based in Urbana, Illinois, Frasca International was fo ...

Beech Baron The Beechcraft Baron is a light twin-engined piston aircraft designed and produced by Beechcraft. The aircraft was introduced in 1961. A low-wing monoplane developed from the Travel Air, it remains in production. Design and development The di ...

trainer, and the other is a level 2 generic trainer. In addition, there is a sizable fleet of non-flying aircraft at ACE that is used by the Aircraft Maintenance program. This includes: * 1

McDonnell Douglas McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own merger with Boeing in 1997, it produ ...

DC-9 The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is an American five-abreast single-aisle aircraft designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was initially produced by the developer company as the Douglas DC-9 until August 1967 and then by McDonnell Douglas. After ...

engine * 1

Bell 206 The Bell 206 is a family of two-bladed, single- and twin-engined helicopters, manufactured by Bell Helicopter at its Mirabel, Quebec, plant. Originally developed as the Bell YOH-4 for the United States Army's Light Observation Helicopter progra ...

Helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

* 1

OH-58 Kiowa The Bell OH-58 Kiowa is a family of single-engine single-rotor military helicopters used for observation, utility, and direct fire support. It was produced by the American manufacturer Bell Helicopter and is closely related to the Model 206A ...

* 1

Bell 47 The Bell 47 is a single-rotor single-engine light helicopter manufactured by Bell Helicopter. It was based on the third Bell 30 prototype, which was the company's first helicopter designed by Arthur M. Young. The 47 became the first he ...

Helicopter * 4

Cessna 180 The Cessna 180 Skywagon is a four- or six-seat, fixed conventional gear general aviation airplane which was produced between 1953 and 1981. Though the design is no longer in production, many of these aircraft are still in use as personal aircr ...

* 1

Piper Apache The Piper PA-23, named Apache and later Aztec, is an American four- to six-seat twin-engined light aircraft aimed at the general-aviation market. The United States Navy and military forces in other countries also used it in small numbers. Origin ...

* 1

Cessna 172 The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is an American four-seat, single-engine, high wing, fixed-wing aircraft made by the Cessna Aircraft Company.

References

{{reflist, 2 Colleges in Ontario Education in Thunder Bay Buildings and structures in Thunder Bay