Quote:
Originally Posted by madcorgi
Can't they put a cow catcher on the front of the fire fighting helicopters?
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No.
I was in the commercial UAS business (which I sold) and now make UAS for commercial and DoD markets.
We did a lot of exhaustive market analysis and picked our target markets accordingly.
The best run group was the Forest Service and their folks out of Montana. There had their stuff wired.
On a large, active fire, the FS will generally declare the area a temporary restricted area for commercial and military flights - FS and other support aircraft only. They publish the information in what are called NOTAMs - Notice to Airmen.
Smaller fires as well get the same treatment by local jurisdictions if aircraft are employed to fight the fire. As you can imagine, the sky gets busy and the pilots need to know they can maneuver at will making their drops.
What the FS wanted from UAS EO/IR cameras when IFR conditions exist - they wanted to be able to track hot spots when manned aircraft can not fly.
They also wanted post fire inspections, communications relay, etc. The FS folks we dealt with, as well as smaller fire-fighting organizations were ultra professional and had metrics to back up their operational processes.
The rise in UAS capability, especially beyond the hobby drones, is really something. We are working with the US Navy on a UAS that can swim through the water and then go airborne.
True story.