The Oregon Department of Aviation (ODAV) has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with SiFly, the leader in long-endurance, NDAA compliant drones, to explore the use of Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drones for wildfire inspection, public safety support, and medical drone delivery across Oregon.
The agreement outlines a collaborative effort to assess and advance the operational feasibility and deployment of SiFly’s Q12 and Q250 aircraft in these critical operations as well as explore opportunities related to the newly released Part 108 NPRM.
“Oregon continues to face escalating threats from wildfires and persistent challenges in accessing healthcare in rural areas,” said Kenji Sugahara, Director of the Oregon Department of Aviation. “This partnership allows us to explore how emerging aviation technologies can help meet these urgent needs in a safe, strategic, and scalable way.”
Cutting-Edge Aircraft for Real-World Missions
SiFly’s Q12 drone offers an unprecedented 2-hours of continuous hover and up to 3-hours in forward flight, enabling a 90-mile operational range with the ability to carry up to 10-pounds of payload unlocking a key need for Oregon in wildfire inspection, public safety and medical delivery. While the Q250, a heavy-lift drone capable of transporting 200-pound payloads with 100-minute endurance opens the direct replacement of costly helicopter operations for wildfire suppression and cargo/medical delivery operations at a fraction of the traditional cost.
“Our mission at SiFly is to deliver helicopter level capability at drone economics. Partnerships like this allow us to show why our aircraft are built for exactly these kinds of missions—where distance, terrain, or urgency make traditional methods inefficient, expensive, or impossible,” said Logan Jones, Chief Business Officer at SiFly. “We are excited to work with ODAV to see how we can contribute to Oregon’s resilience and preparedness.”
Scope of the Partnership
Under the MOU, ODAV and SiFly will work together on:
• Operational feasibility assessments
• Regulatory coordination and compliance
• Payload integration and testing
• Demonstrations of use cases
• Engagement with key public safety and healthcare stakeholders
• Identifying potential local operators for future deployment
The MOU is non-binding and does not authorize active deployments or confer exclusivity. Rather, it establishes a cooperative framework to explore the possibilities of this technology in a real-world Oregon context. The MOU is effective for one year and may be extended by mutual agreement.
This press release was prepared and distributed by the Oregon Department of Aviation.
