Spanish company Nitrofirex presented the first version of an unmanned aircraft capable of combating forest fires at night at the Aerial Firefighting Europe Forum held in Aix-en- Provence (France) on April 10/11.
This conference and exhibition aimed at the Aerial Firefighting community brought together international government procurement and operational officers, civil organisations, international manufacturers, operators and service providers to discuss and debate the latest techniques, technologies and platforms available to tackle the specific and persistent threat of wildfires.
The Spanish proposal was made by Alexander Burwitz, operations manager of Nitrofirex and a seasoned pilot with more than 12 years of aerial firefighting experience behind his back. He delivered a lecture regarding the importance of night time forest-fire fighting with the contribution of new technologies in relation to unmanned aircraft at the French Academy for Fire, Rescue and Civil Protection of Marseilles,
The Nitrofirex prototype, which is in its design phase, integrates these technologies to operate at night on the fire and carry a greater payload, the extinguishing agent, at a greater speed and at big range, as compared to current means. The project entails a set of glider containers that carry the extinguishing agent and which after being launched from the rear ramp of a heavy transport aircraft are directed autonomously to the source of the fire to drop their contents with great precision and then return to base to be reused.
Source: Press Release