The US Department of the Interior could begin using unmanned air vehicles to battle forest fire within a year based on a recent demonstration in which Kaman Aerospace and Lockheed Martin doused controlled burns with an optionally piloted K-MAX helicopter.
During a 5 November demonstration, an optionally manned version of the K-MAX completed eight firefighting scenarios at Griffiss International Airport in upstate New York designated by the Federal Aviation Administration as an unmanned air vehicle test site.
During a 4h window, the helicopter performed autonomous fire suppression operations including collecting and dropping 2,270kg (500gal) of water on controlled burns without a pilot in the cockpit, says Dan Spoor, Lockheed’s vice-president of aviation and unmanned systems.
“We also demonstrated the ability to build fire lines, which means sequentially dropping water in front of the fire to create a firebreak,” Spoor says.
The aircraft was able to drop 659l or 10,900kg (24,000lb) in an hour, the equivalent to a single Boeing 747 load, says Greg Steiner, president of Kaman Aerospace.
Also on hand for the test was a Lockheed Indago quadcopter, which fed information to the K-MAX ground control operator. The small UAV would be launched by a firefighter on the fire line to provide situational awareness and to designate a target for the K-MAX to douse.
Manned versions of the K-MAX already are used for firefighting missions, as well as construction, logging and humanitarian disaster relief.
“Optionally piloted versions build on this baseline,” Steiner says. “They can be flown as a manned version during the day and then unmanned during the night to support 24h firefighting.”
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