Consumer drones look like child's play after you get a gander at the unmanned, water-dropping helicopter that was pitched to the federal government on Wednesday.
It was suitably smoky out when the dual rotor K-MAX powered up for a large audience of federal firefighting managers. A late season wildfire in Boise County supplied the unplanned haze.
Defense contractor Lockheed Martin and helicopter maker Kaman supplied the glimpse into unmanned aerial firefighting.
The K-MAX chopper looks like it’s been squished from the sides. Still, it is the largest of several remotely-piloted firefighting aircraft to get a tryout this year.
The K-MAX demonstrated water drops and ferried supplies up and down a mountain. All of the missions were flown by remote control from a ground station set up next to the helipad near Lucky Peak Reservoir.
A pilot sat in the one-seat cockpit ready to take the controls just in case, but nothing went wrong.
Round-The-Clock Operations
Kaman Aerospace Vice President Bob Manaskie says the helicopter can fly through thick smoke or darkness, situations that force current firefighting aircraft to stay on the ground.
“We can fight fires 24-7, unmanned or optionally manned,” he said. “That’s the advantage. You can get water on the fires 14 or 15 extra hours per day where a manned system can’t.”
Manaskie says the U.S. Marine Corps operated two K-MAX helicopters in the unmanned configuration in Afghanistan to resupply remote outposts at night. K-MAX shuttles replaced dangerous convoys on the ground.
“We’ve tweaked it to where it is very safe. When we put it in Afghanistan initially, the Marines wouldn’t put people underneath the aircraft as it was hovering because they were afraid unmanned it would fall down,” said Manaskie.
“By the end, there were tons of people under there hooking up stuff. They got very confident with it. And that’s what it is,” he said.
Equipment That Pulls Its Own Weight
Manaskie says a K-MAX helicopter costs about $7.5 million. It is assembled in Connecticut. The chopper can lift up to 6,000 pounds, the equivalent of its own weight.
The manned version was first certified for flight in 1994. More recently, Lockheed Martin partnered with Kaman to add the remote control capability.
U.S. Forest Service Assistant Director for Aviation Art Hinaman says he saw “a lot of potential” at the initial pitch.
“It’s fascinating that it can be done, that the technology is there,” he said. “For us, the ability to do that without having to risk a pilot in low-light-level conditions, poor visibility and weather you just can’t fly – and the guys on the ground need the help - that’s pretty monumental.”
He and other fire managers at the demo said the federal government would probably rent, not buy.
“I don’t think money will be the final barrier,” said Hinaman. “I mean sure, there would be a little more expense I believe to have it operating more hours with the unmanned configuration, but not drastically more. I think for the bang you’re going to get out of that buck, for a little bit more money you get a lot more utility out of an aircraft you already have on the fire.”
The K-MAX helicopter is the third remotely piloted aircraft to get a federal tryout this season. The first two tests used smaller, winged aircraft to identify and map hotspots.
Boeing subsidiary Insitu showed off a repurposed military reconnaissance drone called the ScanEagle over a forest fire in Olympic National Park.
Then Textron Corporation demonstrated its Aerosonde Mark 4.7 surveillance drone over a different forest fire north of McCall, Idaho.
So how soon will drones routinely help at wildfires? Brad Koeckertiz is the unmanned aircraft program manager with the Department of Interior. He figures it will take a few more years to integrate drones into all the other routines found at wildfires.
“I truly believe that unmanned K-MAX and the other optionally-piloted aircraft will become a tool that is regularly used by the firefighters to support them over time,” said Koeckertiz.
The Oregon and Washington state forestry departments also expressed interest in testing drones over real fires this year, but fire season was too hectic for them to get around to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj95SHZCkbM
