{"id":32220,"date":"2023-09-20T13:03:13","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T17:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/its-cuthemedev1.carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/?post_type=cu_story&p=32220"},"modified":"2025-03-24T15:29:06","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T19:29:06","slug":"changing-the-skies-how-ribbits-autonomous-aviation-revolutionizes-northern-deliveries","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/story\/changing-the-skies-how-ribbits-autonomous-aviation-revolutionizes-northern-deliveries\/","title":{"rendered":"Autonomous Aviation Revolutionizes Northern Deliveries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n
\n
\n\n \n \n \n \n
\n\n
<\/div>\n \n
\n
\n\n

\n Autonomous Aviation Revolutionizes Northern Deliveries\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n \n

Ty Burke<\/em><\/p>\n \n

In celebration of Carleton University\u2019s 2023 Throwback week\u2013a homecoming for alumni and community members\u2013we sat down with seven alumni to see where they are now. Their stories moved us and reminded us of the impact our engineering and design alumni have on creating technology for good, sustainability, health and wellness, and social innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Changing the Skies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The distance between Northern Communities is vast. Many are only accessible by air, so everything needs to be flown in. That contributes to grocery prices that are very high, and a delivery schedule that\u2019s vulnerable to all kinds of disruptions.  But a cargo airline start-up co-founded by a Carleton aerospace engineering graduate wants to use autonomous aviation to make deliveries more frequent and reliable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday, relatively large aircraft serve these communities, but with large planes comes infrequent service,\u201d says Carl Pigeon, the co-founder of Ribbit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd if there are disruptions to the air network, communities won’t get any fresh food. Autonomous planes allow us to use small aircraft that wouldn’t normally be economically viable, and drastically change the economics of delivering to these communities. You could have a consistent flow of goods that’s much more resilient to service disruptions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Carl Pigeon, Co-Founder of Ribbit, Carleton aerospace engineering alumnus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ribbit is seeking to develop four major bases of operation in Goose Bay, Labrador; Sioux Lookout, Ontario; Thompson, Manitoba; and Iqaluit, Nunavut. From these, they\u2019d serve 50-70 Northern Communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAbout 80% of what gets flown into northern communities is food, and we focused on onboarding food wholesalers as our first customers,\u201d says Pigeon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey will take orders online or by phone, and we work directly with them to ship goods at a higher frequency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pigeon completed his Bachelor of Engineering in aerospace engineering at Carleton, and credits a 16-month co-op with Ottawa aerospace company Gastops as important preparation for life as an entrepreneur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe co-op program played a huge role in setting me up for success,\u201d says Pigeon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had an excellent mentor named Jim Percy. He offered me a lot of support, and gave me my first glance at what is it like to build, develop and certify products for aviation, which is what I do today. I am forever grateful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to participate in Carleton\u2019s 2023 Throwback events? Visit the alumni website to learn more.<\/a><\/em><\/u><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ty Burke In celebration of Carleton University\u2019s 2023 Throwback week\u2013a homecoming for alumni and community members\u2013we sat down with seven alumni to see where they are now. Their stories moved us and reminded us of the impact our engineering and design alumni have on creating technology for good, sustainability, health and wellness, and social innovation. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32223,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[249,193,207,252],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-32220","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-alumni","cu_story_type-feature-stories","cu_story_type-interdisciplinary","cu_story_type-research"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/32220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/32220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32270,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/32220\/revisions\/32270"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=32220"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=32220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}