Swords into plowshares...

[MindPilot]

OK, that may be a bit of hyperbole, but at least in this case there is a peaceful use for one of the cool new war toys.


Photos taken by drones provide data to plan attacks

An unmanned aircraft flying 23,000 feet above San Diego County yesterday pierced the thick shroud of smoke with infrared cameras to stream real-time photographs of the fires and their progression to the firefighters' command post.

Using a Predator to record an image such as this is safer than sending a manned aircraft up into turbulent winds and smoky skies.
Hundreds of miles away, at Edwards Air Force Base, NASA pilots used a sophisticated remote control to operate the 5,000-pound plane as it flew back and forth over the fires that earlier in the week had forced the evacuation of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, which makes the aircraft.

“In the past when we have done our mapping of a fire, we've done a lot by helicopter,” said Del Walters, assistant regional chief for Northern California, who was assisting in the command center in San Diego yesterday. “The Predator, and the tools in it, make mapping a whole lot more accurate and it frees up the firefighting tools, like helicopters,” Walters said.

It's also much safer than sending a manned aircraft up into turbulent winds and smoky skies, and it can fly at night, he said.

In the morning, relatively fresh photos of the fire, its movements and any hot spots can be overlapped with mapping technology, including Google Earth, helping the command post devise a better plan for the day's combat.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20071025-9999-1b25drone.html