Oklahoma firefighters may use a drone on wildfires this year

Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, have been in the news recently. FireFlight UAS, a company in Oklahoma that manufactures small versions of the aircraft, is adding to the hype by marketing their products to firefighters. According to NewsOn6, they have convinced John Hansen, the Director of the Oklahoma Council on Firefighter Training, the vehicles could provide valuable intelligence during suppression of wildfires.

Here is a video report about the UAV.
NewsOn6.com – Tulsa, OK – News, Weather, Video and Sports – KOTV.com |

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4 thoughts on “Oklahoma firefighters may use a drone on wildfires this year”

  1. Tim,
    Nothing can replace the ” being right there”.. I flew Air Attack several years and now I’m back in Tankers. Things happens fast and right below us (Copters and airplanes); sometimes critical situations are developping in a matter of minutes, seconds. Human experience is a major key to understand and react immediately.
    Can drones do fire mapping; sure. and relay it to all partcipants.
    For now I think that would be it. And I’d rather see an Air Attack ship equiped with Flir/fire mapping, etc than a drone in the perimeter. Main reason why is the Human factor making decisions” right here, right now”.
    Jerome

  2. I think this has potential to improve coms between ground and aerial resources, especially with target description, in addition to giving an inexpensive first-person view for the IC to make tactical decisions quickly. Dare I say…this very well could replace air attack someday.

    The only problem, as previously mentioned, we need more tankers first.

  3. I agree.
    R&D is good but only when basics are covered.
    55 Large Air Tankers in 2002. 10 in 2013… Getting warmer too.

    Jerome

  4. Drones,uav’s,blimps, parachute retardant, I don’t get it. How about some fixed wing air tanker this fire season. It appears fire season 2013 will be a repeat of 2012. P2V’s a few “new generation” (maybe 3) jet powered air tankers and the jury is still out on the VLATs. Sad.

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