Northwest Aerospace News February | March 2018 Issue No. 1 | Page 32

Hood River, ORegon
TALK ABOUT A TRIAL BY FIRE
By Bryan Corliss
A
n Oregon company has integrated
leading-edge optics with streaming
video technology on board a trusty
single-engine Top Cub or Cessna to
create an aerial observation platform
that holds the potential to improve
the way authorities respond to natural
disasters.
They were able to put their platform
to the test last summer when the Eagle
Creek Fire blew up in their own back-
yard, spectacularly scorching nearly
50,000 acres of forest along both sides
of the Columbia Gorge.
“We’d been doing internal research
and development flights on a small-
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NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS
er fire,” recalled Brian Prange, the
vice president of Hood River-based
TacAero. But when the Eagle Creek
fire broke out in September, his team
went into action, streaming live video
and thermal imaging data collected
from the sky to “whoever had a badge”
with the incident command team on
the ground.
The technology worked amazingly
well, said TacAero Project Manager
Devon Wells, a veteran firefighter who
joined the company last year to help
push the project forward. He called it a
“phenomenal eye-in-the-sky tool” that
allows incident commanders—for the
first time—to have real-time overhead
intelligence about what they’re up
against, whether it be a fire, flood or
other disaster.
“We’re getting live video
to the ground crews,”
he said. “This is a huge
advantage.”
The challenge, said Prange, is gaining
acceptance for the technique and tech-
nology. After all, most wildland fires
are fought on foot using hand tools
designed 100 years ago.