aircraft market. Having seen the difficulties faced by manned helicopters during the state’s many wildfires, PFT is creating autonomous heavy-lift drones to supply firefighters in the most dangerous flight conditions. It is developing a unique long-range parallel hybrid (electric/gas generator) configuration.
PFT CEO and Cofounder Joshua Resnick almost lost his home to a California wildfire, so his passion for this project is personal. “Using manned helicopters, our firefighters only get air support for eight hours a day on average,” Resnick says. “It is just too dangerous for humans to fly at night over wildfires in IFR conditions. However, an autonomous heavy-lift drone can fly at night and in other situations too dangerous for pilots, because no lives are being put at risk. This means that supplies can be flown in around the clock, which would be a huge boon to firefighters on the ground.”
Resnick also envisions this technology being useful for provisioning remote Alaska villages, where he says fog can prevent manned aircraft from landing for days or even weeks. Such missions could fly in lifesaving medical supplies to places where roads, railways, and regular airports don’t exist and the sea is frozen most of the year.
WATCH VIDEO NOW
These are just some of the new missions open to unmanned aircraft. Others include aerial inspections and the use of courier trucks as ground-based aircraft carriers.
“Compared to helicopters, unmanned aircraft can provide economical and efficient alternatives for inspecting power lines, water tanks, and other missions,” says Riedel. “You can even use remotely controlled small drones to inspect tanks from the inside, removing the risk to in-place humans from the job while doing it as well as they can, or better.”
As for package deliveries? “With just one autonomous drone on their truck, a FedEx driver could double their ability to deliver packages,” Plaza says. “With three, they could quadruple it.” He predicts a not-so-distant future “when you’re grilling sausages outdoors and you run short, you won’t run out to the store. Instead, you’ll order them through Amazon and a drone will deliver them in minutes to a special landing pad at your home.”
FedEx Drone Delivery video URL: https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=vHXY0L8SlHE
rotorcraftpro.com
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