Regina Garcia
Textron’s aviation business handed a pair of Beechcraft King Air 260 vehicles over to the U.S. Forest Service for use in wildfire mapping operations.
The company said Thursday it equipped the two aircraft units with the agency’s legacy sensors and Overwatch Imaging‘s TK-9 Earthwatch infrared sensing technology to help users map wildfires when operating at nighttime and areas of smoke.
Firefighters can apply the aerial IR mapping approach in efforts to detect lightning-triggered fire events, Textron noted.
The modified King Air 260 planes also feature the Multi-Scan RTA-4112 radar, developed by Raytheon Technologies subsidiary Collins Aerospace, that works to automate weather detection.
