USA: 'Dragon' drones: the flame throwers fighting wildfires with fire

By Susie Cagle 

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Now, whether by sky drops of flammable ping pong balls or the full-on force of a flamethrower, a growing number of US government agencies, including the Department of the Interior and the forest service, are turning to unmanned aircraft to battle fires by setting them first.

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The “dragon egg” system consists of self-igniting plastic spheres filled with potassium permanganate. The ping-pong-like balls are injected with glycol right before the drop, which reacts and sets them ablaze in less than 30 seconds – time enough to bounce through a thick forest canopy and land on the ground. For a cooler fire, drop fewer balls further apart; for a hotter one, just add more eggs.

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The first unmanned aerial prescribed burners were developed by a team at the University of Nebraska to carry a load of the fire-ready balls, automatically pierce each and inject the glycol, and complete the drop. That research turned into the Ignis system developed by Drones Amplified, a private company, in partnership with the Department of Interior. Over time, the dragons’ payload has expanded to 13lb of eggs.

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But airborne fire-starters naturally have some worried. When Silver Wings Drone Services petitioned the FAA last year to allow the company to bypass flight regulations in order to conduct prescribed burns using igniting dragon eggs, the Air Line Pilots Association filed an objection, citing “no analyses of the risk of carrying ‘a payload of ping-pong size chemical spheres’”.

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