October 2025, Munich – CAURUS Technologies has issued their first study entitled “Estimation of Drop Height Impact on Cooling Efficiency in Aerial Fire Fighting”. The study analyzes the impact of various aerial water drop heights on the extinguishing effect on fires. The simulation uses the “Fire Dynamic Simulator” (FDS) by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, US Department of Commerce.
Key findings of the simulation confirmed that
- Cooling and extinguishing a fire through water dispersion from the air depends significantly on how close the dispersed water can reach the combustion zone
- The closer water reaches the fire, the more water can effectively cool and slow down the combustion process.
- Compared to current references, the magnitude of the multiplier effect on water efficiency can go well beyond factor 5 through release proximity alone.
These findings prove that novel aerial firefighting approaches to deliver water closer to the fire through e.g. tree canopy, can substantially increase water efficiency in aerial firefighting. This addresses an important need in aerial firefighting today where increasingly fierce fires meet with frequently occurring water shortages. The research aims at underpinning CAURUS Technologies’ development assumption that combining proximity of water delivery to the fire core, digitally guided targeted water deployment and dispersion or aerosol-water cloud technology can increase water efficiency by a total factor of 10.
In aerial firefighting today, typically rotary aircraft like helicopters or drones drop water from a minimum safety height of approximately 20 meters above ground or obstacles, e.g. tree canopy. The risks to any aircraft – manned or unmanned – carrying water during such missions due to fire proximity remains an efficiency-limiting factor when seeking to improve water’s impact in aerial missions. Reducing the height where water is dispersed while keeping operating conditions safe can significantly improve extinguishing results.
The full study paper can be accessed through our website here.
About CAURUS Technologies:
CAURUS Technologies is developing a fully engineered, digitally guided system for ultra-efficient firefighting. The system aims at digitizing and improving the way water is dropped onto wildfires to improve fire extinguishing precision, efficiency and safety for all involved forces. CAURUS Technologies was founded in 2022 by a team of engineering, management and finance professionals with combined 120 years of experience in aerospace and defense technology, corporate development and finance. Interested parties can find more information here: https://caurus-technologies.com/produkte/