Aerial Vehicle Safety Solutions, the Rothesay, NB, maker of safety equipment for drones, has inked a $1.1 million deal allowing the federal government to test its Payload Precision Delivery System for airdropping supplies into isolated communities.

The contract was awarded by Science and Economic Development Canada’s Testing Stream and includes an option for other government departments to buy up to $8 million worth of the system once testing is finished.

Testing of the system, the name of which is abbreviated as the PPDS, will be carried out by Transport Canada, Indigenous Services Canada and Ontario drone operator 3 Points in Space Media in a First Nations community that lacks the infrastructure needed for more conventional delivery methods.

“With the PPDS, it’s a dual-use technology that drones, and helicopters, and small aircraft use to deliver critical supplies to remote communities where landing and taking off an aircraft is… not an ideal situation,” said Aerial Vehicle Safety Solutions, or AVSS, Vice President of Operations Mariah Murray in an interview.

“So essentially, we can drop things from a drone and control where it lands.”

Founded in 2017, AVSS’s main business so far has been selling parachutes for DJI brand drones that deploy if the engines fail, making it safer to operate them over populated areas. But the PPDS has been in the works for several years and Murray said she expects it to become an important part of the business.

AVSS’s original parachute products, meanwhile, are now sold by more than 45 DJI drone dealers in countries including Canada, Germany and New Zealand. And Murray said AVSS has been at least doubling its revenue in each of the last several years.

“We’re showing that nice hockey stick growth,” said Murray. “And a lot of our revenue is also becoming recurring, so that just shows that there’s a need in the market.”

The company now employs 13 full-time staff and another 30 contractors, and plans to hire three more people this summer.

And with space at its Fredericton production facility at a premium, AVSS has relocated its manufacturing operations to a new warehouse in St. Stephen. Murray said she favoured the location because of local labour market conditions.

“It’s a growing community, as well, St. Stephen,” she said. “I thought it would be a good idea to bring jobs here, to this part of New Brunswick.”

In 2016, the most recent year for which data is available, St. Stephen had a population of 4,415 people — an 8.3 percent drop from 2011 — and an unemployment rate of more than 16 percent.

Murray is staying mum on any future fundraising rounds, but in 2020, AVSS raised an undisclosed amount of capital from Japanese specialty VC firm Drone Fund. At the time, CEO Josh Ogden said sales in 2020 were 10 times those of the previous year, and he expected growth of 7 to 10 times in 2021.