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CIVILIAN
AERONAUTICS← Back to the aircraft
DOCUMENT / TECH-001 REV / 09.2026 PUBLIC TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW

THE AIRCRAFT
ARE ONLY
THE BEGINNING.

The CAC software program brings incident intelligence, mission planning and proprietary swarm development into a broader vision for fire response—across residential, municipal and wildland settings. Built to help people see more, plan with context and explore coordinated aerial capability.

01 / PURPOSE

A clearer view of the incident.

Bring public fire information and mission context into an interface that supports operator review.

02 / AMBITION

A more useful coordinated fleet.

Develop the software that could help observation aircraft and future response assets contribute to a common mission.

03 / FOCUS

Built around the people responding.

Explore agency workflows and evaluation needs with the teams who would use the capability.

SOFTWARE / 01
01
SWARM
COORDINATION

Multiple aircraft.
One coordinated mission.

A central focus of our software program: proprietary technology intended to help observation aircraft and future response assets work together under operator oversight.

Swarm coordination is being developed and evaluated in local simulation alongside the CAC operations application. Our goal is to make coordinated aerial capability useful to incident-response teams.

SEPTEMBER 2026
  • Recorded 442-test software-suite pass
  • Human-operator exercise under review
  • Simulation-stage development
NEXT STAGES
  • Further software evaluation
  • Operations-application integration
  • Aircraft integration and validation
Winged OVAD pre-production aircraft concept in flightPRE-PRODUCTION CONCEPT · ILLUSTRATIVE OVERLAYS
THE SOFTWARE VISION

A fleet that contributes
to a common purpose.

Our ambition extends beyond managing individual aircraft. Swarm coordination is a central development priority for making multiple aerial assets useful together, with people overseeing the mission.

This public overview describes the intended role and development status of the capability. Detailed technical material is not part of this briefing.

COLLECTIVE LEARNING / THE LONG-TERM VISIONARCHITECTURE IN DEVELOPMENT

EXPERIENCE THAT
OUTLASTS THE MISSION.

Civilian Aeronautics is developing a collective-learning architecture intended to turn mission experience into lasting knowledge. The goal is to help future aircraft and operators draw on reviewed lessons from earlier missions—supporting better-informed observation, planning and coordination over time.

Knowledge must be tested, remain traceable to its evidence, and stay subject to human oversight.

OVAD future exterior render at sunriseMISSION / 01
OVAD future exterior render in flightMISSION / 02
Exploratory winged OVAD concept renderFUTURE MISSIONS
ILLUSTRATIVE DEVELOPMENT VISION · AIRCRAFT RENDERS · OPERATIONAL VALIDATION AHEAD
APPLICATIONS / A BROADER HORIZON

Built around experience.
Open to new missions.

Fire response is a central application of our work. We also see potential Department of Defense (DoD) applications for the collective-learning architecture and swarm software, including shared situational awareness, inspection and coordinated mission support. These are prospective development directions, subject to application-specific evaluation and validation.

01 / CONTINUITY

Learn across missions.

Preserve useful experience beyond a single aircraft or deployment.

02 / EVIDENCE

Build on reviewed evidence.

Evaluate potential lessons before relying on them.

03 / OVERSIGHT

Keep people in control.

Learning supports decisions within established operational limits.

SOFTWARE / 02
02
INCIDENT
INTELLIGENCE

Make the information
useful.

The development application brings public incident data and fire-weather screening into a common interface for operator review.

IMPLEMENTED IN APP
  • NASA FIRMS satellite detections
  • CAL FIRE and NIFC WFIGS incident ingestion
  • Modified Fosberg scoring with drought context
  • 0–100 threat-screening score
UNDER EVALUATION
  • Experimental spread-modeling work
  • Data quality and workflow evaluation
  • Further incident-intelligence capabilities

Source freshness depends on satellite observations, agency updates and application synchronization. A refresh does not guarantee a new observation. Screening scores are development tools, not validated fire predictions. NASA FIRMS data guidance →

SOFTWARE / 03
03
MISSION
PLANNING

Bring mission context
into one view.

Mapping, waypoint planning and fleet-status tools form the foundation of the CAC operations application.

IMPLEMENTED IN APP
  • Incident map and mission interface
  • Route-planning tools
  • MAVLink integration code
  • Explicit simulation mode
VALIDATION AHEAD
  • Hardware compatibility by configuration
  • Aircraft and workflow integration
  • Operational performance evaluation
THE OPERATOR EXPERIENCE

THE MISSION.
IN VIEW.

The operations interface brings maps, aircraft status and mission context together. Explore the visual direction through this simulated interface demonstration.

INTERACTIVE INTERFACE DEMO · SIMULATED AIRCRAFT AND MISSION DATA

This demo illustrates the operations interface. It is not a demonstration of the proprietary swarm implementation or live aircraft control.

DEVELOPMENT TRAJECTORY

REAL WORK.
CLEAR MILESTONES.

A dated view of the program. Software implementation, simulation evidence and aircraft performance are distinct stages.

IMPLEMENTED / DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION

CAC Operations

Incident-feed ingestion, mapping, threat-screening and mission-planning components, with MAVLink integration code and an explicit simulation mode.

SEPTEMBER 2026 / SOFTWARE SIMULATION

Proprietary Swarm Development

The current development build has a recorded 442-test software-suite pass. A human-operator exercise is under review.

NEXT / INTEGRATION & EVALUATION

Connect the Development Programs

Further software evaluation and integration with the operations application remain ahead.

SUBSEQUENT / AIRCRAFT VALIDATION

Establish Real-World Capability

Aircraft integration, hardware compatibility and operational performance require subsequent testing. No deployment dates or flight-performance claims are established here.

PROPRIETARY DEVELOPMENT

Built around
the mission.

Civilian Aeronautics develops its own mission software and is pursuing an integrated aircraft-and-coordination approach to fire response. This briefing presents our public development focus and status.

REQUEST BRIEFING

Help shape the next
chapter of response.

Agency teams, technical partners and prospective collaborators — talk with us about software evaluation and future pilot programs.

Discuss a Pilot Program → Return to Main ↩