Corova is a state park that contain few paved roads which increases the response time to locate fires and lost persons. Currently, fires are either reported by hikers or visual smoke. Fires seen by visual line of sight are already large enough for first responders to get to quickly. However, fires reported by hikers may still be small. Having the ability to fly out and pin point the fire and quickly put it out helps prevent the fire from spreading into a large forest fire causing major damage to the park.
The Red Eagle can also assist in search and rescue of persons. Current methods of searching for lost persons is forming groups of people who walk in a line space out at an arm’s length apart. The Red Eagle allows for a greater search area in more detail with the thermal imaging camera. This camera allows for temperature gradients to be observed as warmer objects will appear brighter then colder objects.
The Red Eagle does face some challenges while performing these task. Fires and missing persons do not always happen when the weather is perfect. The Red Eagle will need the ability to withstand high winds and rain. Also, at Carova Beach, there is high amounts of radio frequency noise from high powered antennas than can cause the Red Eagle to crash. These problems and the building of the Red Eagle will be done by the student in the VA Drones class at Old Dominion University.
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