“New Zealand’s aerospace sector is stretching what’s possible for global aerospace technology and capability. We are delighted to support the 2022 Christchurch Aerospace Challenge, gathering bright minds, and getting their world-leading ideas recognised and ready to disrupt aerial imagery capture globally.”
UAS & Woods was one of three finalists, who were each awarded $10,000 grants in an earlier judging round to develop their innovative ideas. They received mentoring and support from Challenge partners and the local innovation ecosystem to help progress their proposals.
The two runners-up were Swoop Aero and Versatile Airborne Radars. Swoop Aero’s proven technology platform has safely delivered over 800,000 items across 14,500 flights in seven countries since 2017. For this Challenge, Swoop adapted their technology to a new use case, aerial data collection, to help build and strengthen the world-leading aerospace industry in Christchurch.
Versatile Airborne Radars proposed a versatile snow radar for drones and aircrafts augmenting satellite information in the vertical dimension, to address the challenge of losing snow and ice that our world is facing.
The three finalists pitched their solutions to an expert judging panel at the awards ceremony held at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand.
The Challenge is delivered through a partnership between ChristchurchNZ and the Christchurch City Council and is proudly supported by the University of Canterbury, Aerospace Christchurch and KiwiNet.
More information can be found on aerospacechallenge.co.nz