Every big wildfire was a small one first. Mohannad saw one start on Arthur’s Seat, in the middle of Edinburgh, while he was out hiking. It was small. Nobody was watching for it. He just happened to be walking past. Most hillsides don’t have walkers. And you can’t pay someone to stand on one all night. So Mohannad is building SIDRA, a small aircraft that patrols on its own, day or night, and still knows where it is when GPS drops out. Its fire detector is modelled on the brain of a nightjar, a bird that hunts in the dark. In simulation, SIDRA can confirm a fire in under five seconds. And with every lap, it learns from its mistakes, reducing false alarms along the way. Nothing has flown yet. The next step is taking SIDRA off the screen and onto real hardware. Follow along to see Mohannad's first flight.