The first flight in a real and operational scenario of the FB Eye – Fire Bombing Eye system, a project funded by the European Space Agency – ESA with funds from the Italian Space Agency – ASI under the Artes-2 call, was successfully completed on Friday 4.0 August.
The project, coordinated by the company ALI SpA, sees the participation of a network
of qualified SMEs in the space sector: Euro.Soft srl, IES Consulting srl, Top View
srl, Webgenesys SpA
FB Eye is an innovative system, unique in its kind, which provides real-time detection and analysis of firefighting operations conducted by fire-fighting aircraft.
precise location of the fire starting point; simulated forecast
of the progress of the fire in the next 15-30 minutes; the choice of the optimal release point and the calculation of the effectiveness of the releases.
Thermal images of the fire are transmitted via satellite to the automatic analysis center, which processes the data with the weather conditions and the characteristics of the vegetation present on the ground.
The results are sent immediately to the on-board system, which guides the pilot acoustically and visually to the ideal point for releasing the water or retardant.
The flight of last August 2nd is part of the air campaign against summer forest fires
of Catalonia. The firefighting aircraft used was an Air Tractor AT-802F of the
Spanish airline TITAN, project partner.
The computing and control center, connected to the aircraft via satellite communications, is located in Catania.
“FB Eye – says Eng. Francesco Punzo, Operations Manager of ALI SpA. and
Project Program Manager – is the demonstration of Italian excellence on
advanced technologies applied to environmental protection. A big thank you
to the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency for believing in us”.
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Article published on 8 August 2024 - 19:35
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