By Juan Plaza
Commercial UAV News
This year at the 2019 National Sheriffs’ Association Winter Technology Conference in Washington D.C., Icarus Aerospace drew an especially large crowd to their exhibit. While their program management solutions always attract attention at these types of events, it was the fact that the Boeing S-100 Camcopter® was being shown for the first time in a public setting that caught everyone’s attention.
The S-100 is no ordinary or off-the-shelf commercial device. It is truly a unique piece of aerospace technology, as it is uniquely equipped to locate missing persons in inclement weather, to enable resupply efforts during natural disasters & search and rescue operations, to provide long endurance overwatch during critical events, and to perform large area surveys in hard to reach locations. Being able to utilize the S-100 unmanned system when the weather poses a risk to manned aviation members will significantly reduce the danger to people, whether they’re in the air or on the ground.
Icarus Aerospace is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) based in Pennsylvania. In the summer 0f 2018, the company became the first UAS Company in North America to pass the rigorous International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards & Training (IADLEST) National Certification Program™ standards. As a company led by those who not only wore the uniform as operators but served as Military & Public Safety instructors, Icarus Aerospace Inc. has been able to create an especially relevant UAS Public Safety-centric course focused on operator integration and knowledge. The company’s unique comprehension of public safety operational knowhow with aeronautical engineering understanding is what caught the attention of the Boeing executives who were looking for a partner in the public safety arena.
“The emergence of the S-100 with these capabilities in the Public Safety UAS sector is long overdue and shows a critical evolution many in the industry have been expecting,” President and CEO of Icarus Aerospace, Joshua Brown, told Commercial UAV News.
Brown and Icarus Aerospace are honored to help their brothers and sisters of the Public Safety community. They have made a name for themselves within the Public Safety industry by pushing the limits of unmanned technology and training methodology. Their focus on UAS development has set them apart from others in the industry and earned them the title of Subject Matter Experts by multiple Public Safety organizations around the globe.
As unmanned systems have entered the Public Safety realm, most of the focus to date has been around small, low-cost systems. Major disasters and emergencies in recent years have demonstrated the limitations of these devices, and have shown them to be inadequate. It seems the rise of the large unmanned aircraft systems has arrived.
Icarus Aerospace, one of the most well respected Public Safety UAS firms in North America, coupled with the very capable Boeing S-100 UAS, will undoubtedly open up new doors for the industry that will make our streets and skies safer.
This article was republished with permission from Commercial UAV News.