01 · Hardware
Aircraft.
Transports the communication payload. Flies to the chosen landing point, lands, then returns to the operator when the mission is complete.
The system
Three parts. One system.
02 · Payload
Repeater.
An advanced relay, built to work with the radios crews already carry. No new device on the belt: crews keep the handhelds, the channels and the call signs they already have.
03 · Software
GCS.
The ground control software that plans the mission, flies it and shows the link, on one screen. It needs no internet; the maps are saved before the crew leaves the road.
How it works
Three places. One channel.
Crews work in terrain that blocks their radios’ line of sight to command. The relay lands on high ground between them, and the radios they already carry reach across.
Tap a step to play it
Section cut
The terrain
- Direct path
- —
- Relay
- —
- Channel
- —
Illustrative. Not a measured link.
The ground
Explore the terrain.
Click a marker to open a point.
01
Link
01Operators
The crews doing the work.
Firefighters and search teams in terrain that blocks their radios’ line of sight to command.
via the relay
Operators are the crews on the ground: cutting line, searching, moving through steep terrain. They carry handheld radios, and the terrain blocks the line of sight to command. With the relay up, the radios they already carry reach command.
02Incident Command
Where the response is run.
The team that runs the response: who goes where, what happens next, and when to pull out.
via the relay
The team that runs the response. It sits back by the road, often out of radio reach of its crews.
What it does
- Assigns the work
- Tracks every crew
- Makes the safety calls
- Launches the drone
03The Relay
A person, or a drone.
Today, a repeater on high ground usually means a person carried it up and stays with it.
relay up
Today someone hikes the repeater up and stays with it. The drone flies it up and lands. No one stays up there.
Person vs. drone
- Gets there
- Hikes it up
- Flies it up
- On high ground
- Up to 12 hours
- No one
- Exposed to
- Fire, weather, terrain
- Only the aircraft
A personThe drone
Beyond the fire line.
We do not yet know how far a fleet of these can go. One aircraft holds one high point; a line of them could hold a whole incident, and the same capability has a place wherever crews work beyond the reach of a tower. We are not claiming that today. Our job is to make the one aircraft worth trusting, prove its numbers in the open, and let the fleet follow.