Aerial Vehicle Safety Solutions, the Rothesay, NB, maker of safety equipment for drones, says it has finished a $1.1 million federal testing contract with flying colours and is about to start pursuing a larger government sale.

The original deal was awarded in February by the Testing Stream of Innovative Solutions Canada, part of Science and Economic Development Canada. It included an option for AVSS to enter a second program, dubbed Pathway to Commercialization, that would offer other government departments the chance to buy up to a combined $8 million worth of product.

Under the February contract, the federal government tested 100 units of AVSS’s Payload Precision Delivery System, or PPDS. And with testing results looking positive, AVSS said in a press release it has now joined Pathway to Commercialization.

“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 AVSS Vice President of Operations Mariah Murray at the time.

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

The federal testing was carried out in remote regions where the government hopes to use the PPDS to deliver supplies, including to First Nations communities. AVSS’s system proved accurate to within 15 metres just under 90 percent of the time.

Founded in 2017 and now boasting 13 employees, 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 previously 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.