Hood River, OR, June 11, 2014 -- Hood Tech’s launcher has just been in another fire fight, this time helping put a UAV over rather than under fire. A large conflagration on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula uses Hood Tech’s UAV launcher to begin monitoring hot spots in the fire line.

From: Hood Tech Corp Mechanical, Inc., Hood River, Oregon
Date: June 10, 2014
Subject: Hood Tech’s UAV Launcher Begins a Flight to Monitor Fire on Kenai Peninsula
Contact: Cory Roeseler, Hood Tech Corp Mechanical, Inc., 541 387-2255, [email protected]

Hood Tech’s UAV launcher, part of a unmanned aircraft system, is helping wildfire managers on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska (http://www.adn.com/2014/05/31/3496071/drone-helps-find-hotspots-map.html?sp=/99/188/). “It was early Friday morning” when, launched by Hood Tech’s UAV launcher, a small UAV “…was on its first mission over a wildfire in nearly five years.” And for a change, the UAV helped monitor a fire rather than receive fire typical in missions performed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The scenario began with Hood Tech’s launcher used …“at 2 a.m. Friday”…, and continues as long as the fire burns. A follow-up article (http://guardianlv.com/2014/06/alaska-fire-still-raging-now-monitored-by-drone-aircraft/) shows Hood Tech’s Superwedge launcher with an UAV ready to fly.

When in 2002 Hood Tech began producing innovative UAV launchers and retrieval systems for small UAVs, those innovations enabled the elimination of runways for launch and retrieval. This freed aircraft for shipboard use, for deployment in irregular or disrupted landscapes, and for other difficult locations. Showing their ruggedness and reliability, Hood Tech launchers have initiated tens of thousands of flights under the extreme environments of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan and aboard ships in the oceans around the globe.

Dr. Andy von Flotow founded Hood Technology in Hood River, Oregon in 1992. In addition to the design and manufacture of launch systems, Hood Technology:

Provides zip test services for pre-flight safety verification of experimental aircraft and components.
Owns and maintains a silent wind tunnel for measuring UAV engine and prop noise in accordance with MILSTD1474.
Develops, tests, and manufactures stabilized imaging systems for a variety of UAVs
Monitors blade vibrations in industrial turbines and jet engines, a diagnostic method for predicting possible future failures.

The Hood Tech web site is: www.hoodtech.com

Contact:
Andy von Flotow
Hood Tech
1750 Country Club Rd.
Hood River, OR 97031
541-387-2288
[email protected]
http://www.hoodtech.com