{"id":22049,"date":"2019-09-04T05:46:48","date_gmt":"2019-09-04T09:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/flame-throwing-drones-the-scary-sounding-devices-that-could-save-lives\/"},"modified":"2019-09-04T05:46:48","modified_gmt":"2019-09-04T09:46:48","slug":"flame-throwing-drones-the-scary-sounding-devices-that-could-save-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/?p=22049","title":{"rendered":"Flame-throwing drones: the scary-sounding devices that could save lives"},"content":{"rendered":"

Flame-throwing drones: the scary-sounding devices that could save lives California <\/a> Flame-throwing drones: the scary-sounding devices that could save lives <\/p>\n

Self-igniting eggs dropped by \u2018dragon\u2019 drones: it sounds scary, but the resulting blazes can limit destruction<\/p>\n

\"Marin <\/a>
Marin county firefighters participate in a controlled burn training in June in San Rafael, California. Drones can help create such burns. Photograph: Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The drone propels a stream of flaming gasoline on to the treeline or drops self-igniting \u201cdragon eggs\u201d that sparka clusterof flames. Managed properly, it will chew away atovergrown forests and helpprevent deadly and destructive megafires.<\/p>\n

Aerial ignition with helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft has long been a key component of fighting fire with fire, but the vast majority of missions still feature a human pilot in the sky.<\/p>\n

Now, whether by sky drops of flammable ping pong balls or the full-on force of a flamethrower, a growing number of US governmentagencies, including the Department of the Interior and the forest service, are turning to unmanned aircraft to battle fires by setting them first.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s already sort of scared of drones, and then you add a flamethrower on top of that and they think great, here comes the apocalypse,\u201d said Quinn Whitehead, founder of Throwflame. \u201cBut there\u2019s actual lifesaving applications for a product like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Goats are the best tool\u2019: grazers in high demand to reduce US wildfire risk<\/h2>\n

Read more <\/a> <\/p>\n

The \u201cdragon egg\u201d system consists of self-igniting plastic spheres filled with potassium permanganate. The ping-pong-like balls are injected with glycol right before the drop, which reacts and sets them ablaze in less than 30 seconds \u2013 time enough to bounce through a thick forest canopy and land on the ground. For a cooler fire, drop fewer balls further apart; for a hotter one, just add more eggs.<\/p>\n

The balls have been industry standard for years, typically dropped from planes or helicopters. They are more nimble and allow for a lighter burn than a heavy old-school helitorch, which is more or less what it sounds like: a long hose extended from the bottom of a helicopter, attached to a 50-gallon drum of fuel, and lit.<\/p>\n

The first unmanned aerial prescribed burners were developed by a team at the University of Nebraska to carry a load of the fire-ready balls, automatically pierce each and inject the glycol, and complete the drop. That research turned into the Ignis system developed by Drones Amplified, a private company, in partnership with the Department of Interior. Over time, the dragons\u2019 payload has expanded to 13lb of eggs.<\/p>\n

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This past winter, the interior department trained firefighters to pilot the drones, purchased eight systems and took off.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re out working in Arizona and California \u2013 they do a lot of burning now,\u201d said Brad Koeckeritz, unmanned aircraft system division chief for the interior department\u2019s office of aviation services. Drones have also been deployed on fires in Nebraska and Oregon, setting backburns meant to limit the spread of wildfire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see a drastic increase over the next couple years as the product is adopted more widely \u2013 it\u2019ll take off and we\u2019ll be buying quite a few of them over the next few years,\u201d said Koeckeritz. The agency has plans to purchase and deploy at least 20 more Ignis systems in the coming season.<\/p>\n

The forest service has just embarked on its own training schedule and is looking to put drones in the sky in the months and years to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cAerial ignition is a specialized mission,\u201d said Dirk Giles, the forest service unmanned aircraft systems program manager. \u201cWe aren\u2019t going to replace manned aviation activities, but we can supplement them while the technology develops.\u201d<\/p>\n

In December, the forest service put out a Request for Information<\/a> for unmanned aerial ignition systems, aka fire-starting drones, for planning and testing purposes.<\/p>\n

So far, the Ignis, now on its second improved version, is the only significant player in the space. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of other systems out there but mostly they\u2019re conceptual ideas,\u201d said Giles.<\/p>\n

Throwflame, Quinn Whitehead\u2019s company, entered the market in July, adding the drone-mounted flamethrower to its catalog of handheld incendiary devices for professional and recreational use.The Throwflame aerial flamethrower carries a gallon of gasoline and shoots a hefty stream of fire at vegetation, wasp nests, trash on power lines or anything else a user might deem a suitable target. <\/p>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s been some incendiary drone devices out for a little while, but we saw a hole in the market for this sort of attachment,\u201d said Whitehead. According to agencies, the Throwflame is not currently in any firefighting fleets.<\/p>\n

But airborne fire-starters naturally have some worried. When Silver Wings Drone Servicespetitioned the FAA<\/a> last year to allow the company to bypass flight regulationsin order to conduct prescribed burns using igniting dragon eggs, the Air Line Pilots Association filed an objection, citing \u201cno analyses of the risk of carrying \u2018a payload of ping-pong size chemical spheres\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

Giles and Koeckeritz say safety is one of their biggest motivators to develop drone ignition programs. A prescribed burn or backburn is no easy, risk-free operation, even when set by professional and experienced human hands. The kind of low-level flying necessary for aerial ignition missions is inherently dangerous, as pilots navigate what\u2019s known as \u201cthe dead man\u2019s curve\u201d. In April, a forest service firefighter<\/a> was killed when his helicopter crashed while on a prescribed fire mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t experienced any direct pushback from any pilots or firefighter personnel,\u201d said Koeckeritz. \u201cIn the fire community there\u2019s strong desire to convert some of these missions to an unmanned system, given the events of the last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike human-piloted helicopters and airplanes, drones can fly after dark, and in dangerous, smoky conditions. Their payloads of dragon eggs are programmed to only drop within a designated geographic area, and if they lose radio signal or GPS, they\u2019re programmed to return to a set launch point, \u201cnot float across the countryside\u201d, said Koeckeritz.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really am quite encouraged about integrating drones with wildfire management \u2013 it\u2019s very promising technology,\u201d said Timothy Ingalsbee, executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology. \u201cMost of the fire industrial complex has been applied to suppression instead of management, but there\u2019s a desire to ramp up prescribed burning.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is at least one small point on which ecologists and the Trump administration seem to agree \u2013 the president\u2019s 2018 executive order<\/a> on wildfire management called for maximizing the use of drones.<\/p>\n

As the fire season winds down for most of the country, agencies are gearing up to manage future fuels in the coming winter and spring by setting prescribed burns in climates that allow firefighters more control over the flames. Expect more thick plumes of smoke in the sky \u2013 along with a few nimble remote-controlled unmanned aerial igniters.<\/p>\n

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