ADAC (aéronef à décollage et atterrissage courts)

ADAC stands for aéronef à décollage et atterrissage courts. It is the French term for a short take-off and landing aircraft, known in English as a STOL aircraft. Transport Canada lists the abbreviation in its information circular CI No. 100-001, and NATO's French glossary uses the same abbreviation.

The term describes what an aircraft can do, not a particular model. Canadian government material applies it to aircraft such as the Twin Otter, the Buffalo and the DHC-7. A supplier who meets the term in a Canadian aviation document is reading a statement about runway performance and regulatory compliance.

How Transport Canada defines an ADAC

Transport Canada defines an ADAC as an aircraft that, within its operating-mass limits, can operate from an ADAC runway. The operation must follow the applicable STOL characteristics and the relevant airworthiness, operating, noise-abatement and pollution standards. The definition therefore ties the aircraft to the runway it uses and to the rules that govern both.

The department gives short take-off and landing aircraft as the English equivalent in the English-equivalent listing of the same circular. Transport Canada also uses ADAC in its guidance on the specific conditions for evaluating a rejected landing for aircraft intended for short take-off and landing operations, found in information circular CI No. 700-016.

NATO usage and the ADACV variant

NATO's French glossary of acronyms and abbreviations records ADAC for aéronef à décollage et atterrissage courts and gives STOL aircraft as the English equivalent. The glossary appears in AAP-15.

The same glossary records ADACV for aéronef à décollage et atterrissage courts ou verticaux, the French equivalent of V/STOL aircraft. It marks ADAC/ADAV as deprecated for that vertical-capable category and gives ADACV as the preferred abbreviation. ADAC on its own therefore refers to short take-off and landing aircraft, not to aircraft with vertical capability.

Where Canadian government material uses ADAC

• Transport Canada: regulatory and guidance material, including its glossary and its rejected-landing guidance.
• National Research Council of Canada: the NRC describes its Twin Otter research aircraft as an ADAC aircraft on its research aircraft fleet page.
• Cadet training material: the cadet instructional publication identifies the CC-115 Buffalo and the CC-138 Twin Otter as aircraft capable of short take-offs and landings and uses ADAC as the abbreviation.
• Defence-aerospace industry publications: a federal industry publication uses ADAC for aircraft such as the Twin Otter, the Buffalo and the DHC-7.

What an ADAC requirement means for a bidder

ADAC is a capability descriptor, not a bid form or a certification. Where a Canadian requirement uses the term, a supplier should be ready to show that the aircraft or service meets the stated performance, runway, airworthiness, operating, noise and pollution requirements. Bid teams should read the requirement against the Transport Canada definition and confirm which runway characteristics and operating-mass limits apply.

Bid teams working from French documents should also match the abbreviation to its English equivalent, STOL aircraft, so that technical responses, translated specifications and compliance matrices use consistent terms. If a NATO-related document is involved, they should check whether it uses ADAC or ADACV, since the two cover different aircraft categories.