Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, and Rain, a leader in autonomous aerial wildfire containment technology, used an autonomous Black Hawk helicopter to demonstrate how it can be commanded to take off, identify the location as well as size of a small fire, and then accurately drop water to suppress the flames.
The 30-minute flight demonstration had guests using a tablet to command the Black Hawk aircraft to take off, find the fire, and then drop water from a Bambi Bucket slung 60 feet beneath the aircraft. It required three successive water drops to extinguish a 12-inch diameter propane-fueled fire ring, which emitted a 3-to-6-inch-tall flame.
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Government agencies, aerial firefighting operators, and investors are coming together to learn and see how both flight and mission autonomy can help prevent high intensity million-acre wildfires. Wildfires cost the United States over $390 billion annually, and multiple risk factors are set to grow up to 30% by 2030. We look forward to demonstrating to lawmakers how autonomous aircraft can stop fires from breaking out, or continue the fight into the night, and in turbulent and smoky conditions, where crewed aircraft wouldn’t venture,” said Maxwell Brodie, Rain CEO.
[Source]
