Rain Industries has added the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk to its list of supported aircraft, demonstrating the ability to remotely command the aircraft via satellite link from a central command centre. For the demonstration, Rain installed its Aircraft Integration Kit on a UH-60. Once the onboard safety pilots activated the flight plan, control of the aircraft, in Tennessee, was handed over to Rain’s California-based control centre. With the control centre monitoring the flight, a demonstration flight was carried out to a hypothetical wildfire site and returned to base without further pilot intervention. Commenting on the flight, Rain’s Chief Engineer Ephraihim Novak said, “This is a critical first proof-of-concept to illustrate how our software will allow uncrewed aircraft to support firefighting missions.”
