Helicopter Flight Testing of Situation Awareness Technology for Integrated Crewed and Uncrewed Aircraft Operations in Wildfire Response

Wildfires have been increasing in frequency, intensity and scale. Aerial firefighting is crucial in the support of ground crews to suppress and extinguish the fires. Recent technological, legislative and operational advances have allowed for the introduction of uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) as a valuable addition to fixed- and rotor-wing crewed aircraft. While UAS can help with the reconnaissance, collisions with helicopters have already been reported. The current research considers the airspace integration of crewed and uncrewed aircraft in disaster response missions. A heli-bucket water drop and refill operations are modeled and tested using an experimental helicopter in five flight tests in the vicinity of Mt. Fuji, Japan. UAS operation volumes are simulated in the vicinity of the helicopter flight area and alerts to aid the pilot’s situation awareness are tested. The results showed that while such situation awareness support increases safety and efficiency of crewed aircraft operations, improvements in the UAS operation volume design can help pilots navigate in less-known and dynamically changing environment.