Drones have attracted their fair share of negative coverage in recent months, from surveillance fears to Russian drone attacks on Ukraine. But in Manchester, a tech founder is developing drone technology that could become a marketing tool, and potentially save lives too.
At early-stage tech start-up Aeroknite, young aerospace engineer Yusuff Yusuff has been working on two very different drone products: a fire extinguishing drone and a hologram drone for aerial displays and advertising.
“This year in the UK, we had record summer high temperatures and we’re starting to see more wildfires,” Yusuff Yusuff, founder of Aeroknite told Prolific North.
“The fire extinguishing drone, if I’m being honest, that’s one of the key missions of the company.”
Having experienced the speed with which a fire could spread as a youngster in Nigeria – as well as seeing the devastating impact of wildfires in Australia on the news in more recent years – he knew he had to do something.
Jokingly remarking that he didn’t want to sound like a “doomsday prepper”, he believes there is an urgency to find solutions to pressing issues like this now as temperatures continue to soar globally – and drones could be the key.
“We have the technology to mitigate this now. All the current methods they’re using with planes, first off, you’re risking the lives of the pilots and it’s inefficient. There’s a huge problem with nighttime firefighting in mitigation.
“Why don’t we use drones for these types of issues? As opposed to liquid fire extinguishing agents, we use foam so we’re able to pack more onto a drone. When it’s in contact with fire it just expands. We have the tech to stop this now.”
