City Council Approves Flight Testing At October 24 Meeting

What if all first responders had a way to see what is happening at a fire, accident or disaster BEFORE they arrive, or even before they leave the station? FIRST iZ is a patent pending system to allow a drone to be dispatched by 911 operators using the Genesis PULSE software. The drone can autonomously fly from locations, such as fire stations, up to five miles to incidents to give ‘eyes’ on the scene. As soon as first responders arrive on a scene, FIRST iZ will be told to return home, charge, and await the next mission.

The Tyler City Council approved an agreement on October 24 with Tyler company Phirst Technologies, LLC to allow a drone and a port to be located in a secure enclosure at Fire Station #9 for the purpose of early testing of the drone and port for first responder use. Testing will be done within FAA part 107 rules for drones and last six to ten months. All information and data generated during this test will be the property of Phirst Technologies, LLC to allow improvement through learning. Phirst Technologies, LLC is bearing all costs for the installation and testing.

PTL will test their patent pending features involving a custom drone and a drone port as they prepare for Beta level testing that will begin in 2019. This Alpha Testing phase will be conducted by Falcon Aerial Data, a Tyler based drone company, under their FAA licenses. Alpha testing will be basic take off, landing, and flights within visual line of sight in various weather conditions, in and around Tyler Fire Station #9 located on South Paluxy, near Loop 49. The goal is to learn about flight dynamics of the newly designed drone and the systems that control it, in multiple weather scenarios. We will also test the redundant systems in the drone from batteries to autopilot to the parachute system. There WILL be failure, but it will be with the purpose of learning and moving forward.

Beta level testing will involve 20 to 40 drones and ports that will be placed at various locations in the USA. The goal of that testing is to make sure that all components are ready for ‘go to market’ late in 2019. The testing scenarios will be more complex and involve cities and counties at a higher level. It is expected that actual use for actual incidents will happen each week during the Beta phase. PTL expects to go to market in late 2019 and ramp up production in 2020 for nationwide distribution. The plan is to offer the drone networks to cities, counties, emergency districts, large campuses, forest services and other locations where disasters occur. The plan is to lease the network of hardware with complete service and oversight, rather than an outright sale to a city.

(Source: First iZ news release. Tyler City Council meeting image provided)

FMI: FIRSTiZ.co, xCraft.io, www.FalconAerialData.com