Bob Hoyle holds both bachelor's and master's degrees in Electrical Engineering. He began his career in 1986 at the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB/C), where he served as the software project authority for the Recovery, Analysis & Presentation System (RAPS)—the expert system software that later became the foundation for Flightscape’s Insight platform.

Bob pioneered advanced software decoding techniques for damaged magnetic tape flight recorders, enabling investigators to recover critical data beyond the capabilities of original manufacturer equipment. He also has extensive experience recovering data from damaged solid-state flight recorders, including those using complex compression algorithms.

At the TSB/C, Bob was also responsible for the acoustic Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) laboratory, gaining significant expertise in digital audio processing, adaptive filtering, spectral analysis, and noise reduction. Throughout his tenure, he contributed to numerous domestic and international aircraft accident investigations.

In 2002, Bob became a co-founder of Flightscape and joined as Managing Partner of Applied Technologies. Drawing on his experience at the TSB/C, he played a key role in designing and building accident investigation laboratories for civil and military authorities worldwide.

Following Flightscape’s acquisition by CAE in 2007, Bob continued as Director of Technology, where he led engineering initiatives and helped establish investigation capabilities for nearly 50 authorities across the globe.

In May 2013, Bob became the Chief Technology Officer of Plane Sciences, providing technical leadership and applying his deep domain knowledge to develop investigation labs and deliver expert support and training.

In January 2023, he assumed the role of Chief Research Officer at APS Aerospace. As part of the Memory Access Retrieval System (MARS) Team, Bob contributes to the development of cutting-edge tools for accident investigation authorities. MARS enables direct reading of memory boards from FDR/CVRs, generating chip-level data files without the need for OEM hardware or software—granting investigators full control over the recovery process.

As of July 1st, Bob continues his work as CRO at APS Aerospace and has also expanded the role of his long-standing firm, Hoyle Engineering (established in 2002), to serve the aircraft accident investigation and software development communities. He welcomes the opportunity to collaborate on your next project.