TECHTALK

December 2003

Civil Air Patrol Gets New Technology

by Harold Kennedy

The Civil Air Patrol is in the process of upgrading its fleet with new technology, enabling it to take high-resolution digital photographs from the air and transmit them, via satellite phone connections, to emergency operations centers. To conduct such operations, the CAP is buying new radios, digital cameras, laptop computers, satellite phone systems and aircraft.

This summer, the Patrol received the first of six GA8 Airvans that it plans to purchase from the Australian-based Gippsland Aeronautics. The GA8 is an eight-seat, single-engine, high-wing utility aircraft. Its large cabin enables the aircraft to “carry more equipment and personnel, which is particularly important when searching remote areas where terrain is treacherous and we need as much technical help as possible,” said the CAP national commander, Maj. Gen. Rick Bowling.

The CAP is the official civilian auxiliary of the Air Force. Dating back to World War II, it has more than 64,000 members in 1,700 squadrons around the country.

Members pay national dues of $30 a year, plus regional and wing fees that vary in cost. To be a full member of the CAP, applicants must be at least 18 years of age, but the organization has a cadet program that begins at age 12.

The CAP has been placed under the Air Force’s Homeland Security Directorate. Its members receive training in aerial reconnaissance, search and rescue, narco-terrorism and disaster relief. The CAP performs an estimated 95 percent of all airborne inland search-and-rescue missions in the continental United States. It has a fleet of 550 single-engine aircraft.

That’s “the largest privately-owned fleet of single-engine aircraft in the nation,” Bowling said. “We can put one of those planes in the air for $90 an hour, as opposed to several thousand dollars an hour for military aircraft or helicopters.”