Seeing through the smoke


Visibility hazards during a fire, including smoke and haze, limit aircraft operations to an estimated one-third of the available day. Columbia Photo

Columbia Helicopters has been fighting wildland fires from the air since 1967. In its early days, the company used a modified cement bucket to scoop up water. Today, the operator’s fleet of powerful twin-engine Chinook firefighting helicopters is equipped with internal water tanks and modern SEI Torrentula Bambi Buckets. But, while some equipment has improved with the times, there’s one area where aerial firefighting hasn’t changed much at all. 

“What we believe – and other studies have shown – is that we haven’t modernized the way aerial firefighting is performed since the 1950s,” explained Santiago Crespo, vice president of Growth and Strategy at Columbia Helicopters in Aurora, Oregon. “It is still very much a day VFR (visual flight rules) endeavor using a long line with a Bambi Bucket or some water tank attached to an aircraft, with very little technology to increase the availability of those aircraft for other parts of the day, during smoke or night operations.”

Visibility hazards during a fire, including smoke and haze, limit aircraft operations to an estimated one-third of the available day. While some operators are beginning to use night vision goggles (NVGs) to fight fires after dark, there is no solution permitting safe operations in daytime degraded visual environments (DVE). Quite simply, if VFR conditions are not met, aerial firefighting crews of all types are grounded.

As the cost of combatting more frequent and extreme wildfires escalates astronomically – with $1.6 billion spent by the U.S. federal government in 2019 and 2020 alone – it has become increasingly evident that modernization of aerial firefighting systems is desperately needed.

Two years ago, Columbia Helicopters began consulting with Boeing-owned Aurora Flight Sciences of Manassas, Virginia. In 2018, Aurora had successfully logged the first operational use of its Autonomous Aerial Cargo Utility System (AACUS), a capability developed for the U.S. Marine Corps. The flight involved a fully autonomous UH-1H Huey helicopter fitted with lidar-based sensors, advanced computers and intelligent algorithms that enabled the helicopter to plan its own flight, select a landing zone and deliver supplies to troops in demanding, austere environments. 

The AdButler Logo

Columbia and Aurora Flight Sciences believe that enhancements in imaging technology can be harnessed to make aerial firefighting assets available for longer periods of the day. Columbia Photo

“We’ve been working with Aurora on understanding the requirement for the end user and where this technology can be applied in aerial firefighting,” Crespo told Vertical. “We’re concentrating now on a capability we believe can be more effective than the positional use of NVGs, which are only applicable at night and don’t serve any purpose during the day.”

The two companies have joined forces to explore the development of a new enhanced pilot situational awareness (EPSA) technology that will allow aerial firefighting efforts to continue even when VFR conditions are not met, maximizing the use of all available resources. (At the time of writing in early June, Columbia and Aurora had not officially named the new technology.)

“By making containment more effective, we can reduce overall costs for taxpayers and save lives and property,” said Crespo, who added that the new system does not remove the pilot from the firefighting mission. “Autonomous firefighting is many, many years in the future. The pilot is an integral part of this mission. 

“We are enhancing their situational awareness through a synthetic real-time environment. It will be created by a set of sensor suites installed on the aircraft, including lidar, radar and infrared cameras, combined with the “Highway in the Sky” trajectory planning technology Aurora has developed with the military. That information will be projected onto a cockpit helmet mounted display (HMD) to accurately inform the pilots of their surroundings.

While the technology exists today and is applicable to both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, Crespo said Columbia and Aurora are concentrating solely on the Chinook 234 heavy-lifting helicopter. Aurora will bring its technology expertise to the project and will obtain the necessary supplemental type certificates (STCs) and develop flight plans. Columbia will provide the aircraft, prove the concept of operations, integrate the equipment and work with Aurora on flight testing. The companies expect to have a demonstrator available within 18 months.

“There is an opportunity here,” said Crespo. “We are just one entity, but there is an opportunity to really revolutionize the way we fight fires. There has been a lot of research done by the Department of the Interior on having coverage for aerial fire suppression during the day. There are many benefits to this technology.”

New EPSA technology from Columbia and Aurora would also be expected to increase the effectiveness of a water drop since firefighters on the ground can live stream the operation. 

“Firefighting is an art requiring a lot of expertise,” continued Crespo. “Columbia 100 percent understands that aircraft do not put fires out. The firefighters on the ground do that. We are an important support to that function.”

Columbia and Aurora believe that enhancements in today’s imaging technology can be harnessed to make aerial firefighting assets available for longer periods of the day, thereby enhancing efficiency and maximizing impact. 

Crespo called on the U.S. federal government to motivate and incentivize the development of new technology in the aerial firefighting sector. 

“We have to work in partnership with the federal government. Our customers have to be on board and recognize the benefits by creating contract opportunities for operators to use this technology. We are working closely with our customers because the EPSA has the potential to be a true game changer for helicopter firefighting operations.”

Crespo declined to estimate the cost of equipping a Chinook 234 with the new EPSA system, adding that it is early days and final costs are to be determined.

  
Social Messaging