The Oregon Department of Aviation (ODAV) has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with SiFly to explore the use of beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drones for wildfire inspection, public safety support and medical drone delivery across Oregon.
The agreement outlines a collaborative effort to assess and advance the operational feasibility and deployment of SiFly’s Q12 and Q250 aircraft as well as explore opportunities related to the newly released Part 108 NPRM.
SiFly’s Q12 drone offers two hours of continuous hover and up to three hours in forward flight, enabling a 90-mile operational range with the ability to carry up to 10 pounds of payload. The Q250 is a heavy-lift drone capable of transporting 200-pound payloads for 100 minute missions. Under the MOU, ODAV and SiFly will work together on operational feasibility assessments, regulatory coordination and compliance, payload integration and testing, demonstrations of use cases, engagement with key public safety and healthcare stakeholders, and identifying potential local operators for future deployment. The MOU, effective for one year initially, is non-binding and does not authorise active deployments or confer exclusivity. Rather, it establishes a cooperative framework to explore the possibilities of this technology in a real-world Oregon context.
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