Solar Drone Selected for Department of Interior Contract

We interviewed John W. Brown, Chairman of Silent Falcon UAV today as they just announced that their solar electric, fixed wing, long endurance drone was selected by Bridger Aerospace when needed for its US Department of the interior contract.

These drones are needed for jobs such as wildfire operations, search and rescue, emergency management and other applications all across the country.

The solar technology inside of the drones allows them to fly for 5 hours at a time over distances of over 100 kilometers.

Mr. Brown told DroneLife, “We’ve had a lengthy relationship with Bridger Aerospace and their sister company, Ascent Vision, to combine their expertise in firefighting, and UAS payloads, with our unique capabilities as a long endurance, long range solar electric UAS. The requirements of this project provided an opportunity to optimize the combination of those capabilities and skill sets.”

“This contract is an excellent example of the UAS services industry expanding to include long range horizontal flight services (pipelines, power line etc.), large scale surveys and mapping (100+ sq miles), multi payload projects. Silent Falcon’s ability to fly long distances (>100 km) and long endurance (up tp 5 hours), and quickly change a wide variety of up to 3 kg payloads with our quick change payload mounting (we’ve integrated 15 so far), at a reasonable cost, positions us well as the UAS services industry gravitates to these larger scale commercial and public safety applications.”

“This opportunity with Bridger is a good example of our approach to this new, and rapidly expanding UAS services business – doing these projects with partners with deep expertise in the service application”.

“As the recognized leader in the application of unmanned aircraft technology in natural resources, wildland fire, and land management applications, we look forward to supporting our Interior bureaus’ needs and those of our interagency partners with this first-ever contracted small-unmanned aircraft systems resource,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Safety, Resource Protection, and Emergency Services Harry Humbert.

Bridger’s Founder and President Tim Sheehy stated, “We are humbled and proud to be awarded a spot on DOI’s pioneering UAS firefighting contract. We continue to focus on innovative and effective methods to improve the safety of aerial firefighting operations, and we look forward to continuing to serve communities that are threatened by wildfire danger.”

“We are extremely fortunate to partner with Bridger Aerospace in this first of its kind UAS services contract. This is an exceptional application for the technology embedded in the Silent Falcon, the only solar electric, long range, long endurance UAS”, said Brown.
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ABOUT SILENT FALCON™ UAS TECHNOLOGIES
Silent Falcon™ UAS Technologies manufactures patent pending, state-of-the-art small Unmanned Aircraft Systems and components and sensors for the security, military and commercial markets including oil and gas and pipeline inspections, power utility inspections, large scale agriculture, natural resource management, security/ISR, public safety, and mapping/surveying. Silent Falcon is the only solar electric UAS to provide long endurance and range, silent operations, and an open interface payload bay accommodating a wide- variety of payloads that are also quick and easy to change. The company is headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information, please visit: www.silentfalconuas.com

ABOUT BRIDGER AEROSPACE:
Headquartered in Bozeman, MT, Bridger Aerospace is a leader in the Air Attack segment of the aerial forest firefighting sector. Bridger operates air attack, aerial imaging and aerial survey aircraft across all 50 states and is an awardee of the first UAV Operations contract for US Wildfire Response. Bridger and its predecessor companies have been flying in support of the US forest fire fighting sector since 2002. For additional information, please visit www.bridgeraerospace.com.