Good question. Let's imagine you are a state Department of Transportation responsible for interstate traffic flow. You know the economic cost of every minute of delay a major accident causes. You are required to deploy an incident management team whenever a major accident closes an interstate. So you buy a few commercial version, non-trailer BiB's and put them on pickup trucks or non MilSpec trailers around the state. Within an hour of a tie-up you have an eye in the sky that can see up to 30 miles. You can monitor the back-up, monitor congestion on detours and even zoom in on the incident if it is HazMat. No pilot, no $8.00 per gallon Avgas, just $400 of helium to vent if you didn't buy a recylcer.
You could create a similar scenario for a NASCAR event--every minute people are stuck in parking lots and feeder roads is another minute they do not buy beer, food or tee shirts. I know for a fact that NASCAR has a dollar cost per minute on such delays.
The MilSpec version of the BiB has to be adapted for non-military uses and mounting in a pickup bed would be a useful option IMO. Still, I am pleased you noted how refined the Mark 2 has become. 2,000 feet of data-capable tether is HEAVY. That means a Mark 3 with a bigger envelope is needed IMO. The Army doesn't like wireless downlinks from persistent surveillance for fear of hacking. When you know where the eye is looking you also know where it isn't looking--a tactical advantage you do not want to give your enemy. Hope that helps! The BiB is an elegant system that seems to be improving all the time. Kevin Hess LOVES innovation and is good at it IMO. This was a good deal IMO. Best regards, IJO
AI
