Drones Go From Killing to Terrorists to Fighting Fires
By Steve Casimiro, Adventure Journal on November 16th, 2011
You kind of wonder if they’re bummed about this, you know, like it’s a big adrenaline letdown or something, but unmanned drones will be used to fight wildfires. One of the chief problems of firefighting is knowing where the blaze is headed and how to coordinate personnel on the ground. A new drone could help with both of those issues and, best of all, the SIERRA (Surveillance for Intelligent Emergency Response Robotic Aircraft) is cheap to operate and deploy — far easier than piloted aircraft. The system’s in-flight data merges with Google Earth, NOAA weather info, and fire prediction software, too.
