Falcon Project Uses Rats to Build Bigfoot Blimp

The Rats logo. Rats is an acronym for Remote Aerial Tripod Specialists.

An Alberta news source, MetroNews, showcases one of their local businesses involved in the Falcon Project. The company is called Rats Inc.

An interesting tidbit from the archived website is this tidbit about how aerial surveillance of arctic ice flows inspired the co-founder of Rats Inc.

Read a brief history of Rats Inc. and then the article from MetroNews.

Rats Inc. History:

Stephen [Rats, Inc co-founder] has taken a lifetime of interest and experience in remote controlled aviation to an obvious next level.  As a young man, he migrated towards the Ultra-light Aircraft Industry and with a background as an instrumentation machinist, he then managed the development of the Christensen Ultra-light program.  This included setting up manufacturing facilities, training of employees and clients.  In total, Stephen has produced over 35 fixed-wing aircraft, including a number of antique aircraft restorations.

With a desire to train as a Aircraft Maintenance Engineer, he hired on with a company that had acquired a Challenger 601 for the purposes of aerial reconnaissance of ice flows throughout out the Arctic Circle.  It was during this 3 year Arctic period that was most influential for Stephen.  As it was then ''he derived the concept of Remote Controlled Imagery''.  In 1993 Stephen founded a company which was first to introduce R/C Aerial Photography to the public.  After a couple of years, clients included everyone from government agencies, corporate firms to private individuals.

In 1997 another inventor, Keith Campbell and Stephen formed their present company, Rats Inc.  Collectively they've developed their line of products into the company as it now stands.  With combined focus, their long term plans have withstood the test of time and as a result, one of the finest products developed within the Canadian Borders.

MetroNews Article 

Bigfoot Beware! Alberta company at centre of sasquatch search

By Annalise Klingbeil

American researchers believe a high-tech airship created by a company located in the Alberta hamlet of Lac La Biche could solve the mystery of the sasquatch once and for all.

Utah-based bigfoot researcher William Barnes is trying to raise $300,000 to buy a helium-filled airship that would quietly float over dense North American forests and use thermal-imaging equipment to film footage of the legendary – not to mention elusive – creature.

An official fundraising drive for the venture, which has been dubbed The Falcon Project, kicked off last Saturday in Oregon with an all-day symposium.

After a personal encounter with bigfoot in 1997 and more than a decade spent researching sasquatch researchers, the project’s founder came up with the idea to use unmanned aerial surveillance to record the fast-moving nocturnal primate.

“We don’t want to bother them, we just want to study them,” Barnes said.

That’s where Stephen Barkley, the president of Remote Aerial Tripod Specialists Inc. (RATS), fits in.

His company in Lac La Biche, a hamlet located 220 kilometres northeast of Edmonton with a population of fewer than 3,000 people, has designed the aircraft to be used for the ambitious aerial undertaking.

“If it wasn’t for his (Barkley’s) innovation of this type of airship, this would never work,” Barnes said.

In his 15 years of running RATS, a business that provides blimps and airships for outdoor advertising and photography, the entrepreneur said this is one of the most out of the ordinary projects he’s been a part of.

Barkley said if his company can play a part in finding evidence of the bipedal hairy humanoid creature, “it will make everyone involved famous, if you will.”

While a prototype of the Aurora MK II, the airship that will carry thermal-imaging and high-resolution wireless videography equipment, has been designed, a full-scale model won’t be built until funds are secured.

“Being an inventor and an entrepreneur, it would really be a feather in our cap to have the platform out and operating,” Barkley said.

The business-owner said he has “done his research on bigfoot” and wants to see what a functioning ship hovering above the forest will be able to capture.

“If they do come up with a definitive answer to the whole thing, then, boy, I’d sure have loved to have been part of that,” he said.

The team behind the Falcon Project includes Jeff Meldrum, an Idaho State University professor of anatomy and anthropology, who has been probing the primate’s existence for nearly two decades after examining inexplicable footprints in Washington.

Founder Barnes, a former gold dredger, is eager to secure funds to purchase Barkley’s hovering invention.

He still remembers vividly what he says was a sasquatch encounter in the middle of the night at a campsite in California in 1997.

The hairy creature was about three feet away, walking on two feet and “too big to be a bear,” recalled Barnes.

“I was scared,” he said. “My heart was beating so hard I could feel it in my eardrums.”

SRC: Metro News

Model of Falcon Project Blimp, Aurora MK II

June 22nd Falcon Project Fundraiser Kick-off in Portland Oregon

Rendering of the Bigfoot Blimp to be used in the Falcon Project

Experts will present compelling evidences that motivate the most ambitious undertaking to search for the legendary and elusive North American primate from the air, using the latest in aerial surveillance technology.

Press release from Dr. Jeff Meldrum:

Date:  6/11/13

Written by: 

Contact: Dr. Jeff Meldrum, 208-282-4379

An all-day symposium event to kick-off fundraising for the THE FALCON PROJECT – The most penetrating search for the legendary sasquatch ever undertaken, will take place June 22, 2013 in Portland OR.  Hosted by Olympia Beer, in the Bossanova Ballroom, the symposium will feature multimedia presentations, panel discussions and exhibits. (http://www.bossanovaballroom.com/event-details/?The-Falcon-Project-72-Portland).

The Falcon Project proposes to conduct an extensive aerial search for an unrecognized North American primate, a.k.a. sasquatch or Bigfoot, by means of an helium-filled airship, upon which a platform supporting thermal-imaging and high resolution wireless videography equipment is mounted. The Aurora Mk II airship offers major advantages over similar applications with helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft platforms, foremost, stealth and maneuverability.

The former permits approach and observation with minimal or no disturbance of the subject’s natural behavior.  The latter is critical for surveying in areas of dense stands of forest where a sustained vertical perspective is essential for locating animals on the forest floor.

The unmanned 45′ dual airship is equipped with a proprietary propulsion system that can carry the airship at speeds of 35-45 mph and maneuver with the degree of precision necessary to track a fast-moving animal. The construction, instrument integration, and flight training is being provided by Remote Aerial Tripods Inc. of Canada, (www.ratsinc.net) with Stephen Barkley as lead designer of the Aurora Mk II. The airship, gyro-stabilized camera mount, and ground operations equipment have been designed specifically for the requirements of this task. The sleek, quiet, never-before-used technology eliminates the noise produced by conventional aircraft and on the ground investigators, allowing stealthy approach to wary reclusive species. The challenge of locating a solitary, nocturnal far-ranging, intelligent primate is demonstrated by the dearth of definitive photographic evidence. The Falcon Project offers a novel approach employing the latest technologies.

The research is to be coordinated through Idaho State University, with Dr. Jeff Meldrum, professor of anatomy & anthropology, acting as principal investigator. Meldrum has been probing the question of sasquatch’s existence for nearly 17 years, ever since examining a line of inexplicable 15-inch bipedal footprints in southeastern Washington. Meldrum is author of one of the most authoritative treatments of the subject, Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science. He has published a number of scientific papers examining the footprint evidence.  He now edits an on- line refereed journal, The Relict Hominoid Inquiry (www.isu.edu/rhi) examining the global phenomenon of relict “wildmen.”

This initiative gets underway even as a critical DNA study is being conduct by the Oxford-Luassane Collateral Hominid Project is examining a number of hair samples attributed to sasquatch.  Lead by Professor Bryan Sykes a human geneticist from Oxford University and director of Oxford Ancestors Ltd.  Sykes's books include the New York Times best-selling The Seven Daughters of Eve. “Even if definitive DNA sequence data point to the existence of a novel species,” states Meldrum, “it will not suddenly become easy to study such a rare and elusive primate in the field. That’s where the Falcon Project comes in. Aerial reconnaissance holds the greatest potential for locating and observing the range and the behavior of the sasquatch.”

William Barnes (williamallenbarnes@yahoo.com; 435-230-0351) is the project founder and manager, with over 25 years experience operating his own businesses, including gold dredging and marketing.  Barnes had an encounter with a sasquatch in 1997, and is motivated by the challenge of bringing definitive image evidence before the scientific community for the purpose of finally resolving the mystery of sasquatch. 

The Aurora will be deployed in selected areas of appropriate habitat where reports suggest sasquatch may range. The specifically built gyro-stabilized camera mount will house state of the art equipment that can view and film in infrared, thermal imaging and High Definition.  The camera is the highest resolution (1024 x 768 pixel) uncooled, long wave 7-14 um and 17 micron pixel pitch system in the world today, except for classified U.S. military equipment. Peak emittance from the human body is around 10 um and so this camera will provide the best possible resolution. ICI IR Flash software used with the camera allows image enhancement to 12 Mega Pixels which is better than any uncooled thermal imaging camera in existence today. In other words you will be able to literally print a 12 Mega Pixel image with a Thermal/Infrared Camera by using the proprietary ICI IR Flash Software. This is unheard of in the entire infrared camera manufacturing industry. The FOV (Field Of View) lens used will be a 44 mm x 176 mm optic, f 1.2. To our knowledge no company has used a telephoto lens of this size with an uncooled 1024 x 768 camera for such a project other than possibly the U.S. Defense. Putting an optic on this particular camera will be a first for ICI as it is the newest uncooled IR camera on the market today and not even offered to the public at this time.

Funding and tax deductible donations for ongoing operations of the Falcon Project will be handled through the ISU Foundation, to the attention of Janet Schubert, Development Officer for the College of Science and Engineering. For further information contact Dr. Meldrum (meldd@isu.edu; 208-282-4379).

In addition to Meldrum and Barnes, speakers will include Dr. John Bindernagel and Bill Munns.  Special guest will be Bob Gimlin, witness to the famous Patterson-Gimlin film of a Bigfoot in northern California in 1967.  For advance ticket sales ($25 advance / $30 at the door) to the upcoming Portland event go to http://www.bossanovaballroom.com/event-details/?The-Falcon-Project-72-Portland.

For details on the June 23rd follow-up event hosted by Bigfoot Lunch Club please click on the following link. June 23rd HopsSquatch with Dr. Jeff Meldrum.

Thom Powell: Bigfoot Too Smart for a Blimp

Thom Powell Looking up at Bigfoot Blimp

"I'm not saying it might not work in other places with less forest canopy, but I would emphatically advise my good friends at the Falcon Project to not waste their precious time and blimp gas over the forests of western Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, or even northern California." -- Thom Powell

Thom Powell is one of the most prophetic authors in Bigfooting. When he published The Locals ten years ago he touched upon topics that were once taboo and now up for reconsideration. His newest book Shady Neighbors has already produced insight into Bigfoot behavior using the vehicle of fiction. If you buy the books now, in ten years, when the only thing we have is Bigfoot DNA, you will at least have The Locals to help guide you on Bigfoot behavior.

Thom's prophetic tendencies, does not come tea leaves, but comes from being a pioneer. He was one of the first Bigfooters to create a network of surveillance cameras back in the 1990's. This was back when you ordered the camera and built it yourself from a kit.

In his newest post Thom Powell speaks highly of the Falcon Project team and wishes them success. Thom also expresses concerns based on his experience with cameras, radio controlled planes, and flying over some the squatchiest areas in the northwest.

Below are a few quotes from Thom's Post

Speaking as a guy who has spent a whole lot of time 'squatching' in forests of the Pacific Northwest, I'm pretty sure the favored habitat of the creatures in question is dense forest. What good is any aircraft in finding anything under the canopy of dense forest? 

Maybe Texas, or parts of Idaho have a more broken forest canopy that would allow them to see the ground.  Fine. Concentrate on those areas, but forget about forested terrain. Period. 

Based on my own crude field experiments, I concluded that sasquatch intelligence was at least as great as ours. In my field experiemnts, the sasquatch  had demonstrated (to my satisfaction) the ability to generate infrasound, to disable electronics, including cameras, from a distance, to somehow cloak their presence,

You have to read the Thom's fascinating post for yourself at his website Thomsquatch.com. If you disagree? Leave Thom a comment, he is always eager to here the other side. Click the following link to read Thom's post titled, "Finding a Bigfoot by Blimp, Really?"

WATCH: NBC Affiliate Covers Meldrum's Bigfoot Blimp

Dr. Jeff Meldrum discussing opportunities of the Bigfoot Blimp

"It looks like something out of a science fiction movie. It's a dirigible, an airship that has two air cells that gives it a kind of a catamaran stability in the air," --Dr. Jeff Meldrum.

St. Louise NBC affiliate KSDK covers the Falcon Project, a project we refer to as the Bigfoot Blimp. We first covered the Falcon project back in 2010 before in an article titled, "The Falcon Project: A Blimp to Find Bigfoot." The project has been in the blueprint stage for sometime, and during that time it has gone through redesigns and revisions. Recently the Bigfoot Blimp has gained attention and higher visibility due Dr. Jeff Meldrum's involvement in trying to help fund the project from private donors.

In yesterdays (12/06/12) report by KSDK, there seems to be a new tone emerging. Dr. Jeff Meldrum reminds viewers that the Bigfoot Blimp could be used for research beyond Bigfoot.

"All types of wildlife studies even geological studies could be conducted with data that could be garnered from an airship gathering this type of aerial surveillance imagery," said Meldrum.

Good thing other wildlife and geological research may benefit from the Bigfoot Blimp. There have been those within the Bigfoot community who have expressed concerns. The habitat attributed to Bigfoot is usually under a dense forest canopy, a blimp navigating beneath this canopy seems unlikely. 

Watch Dr. Meldrum discuss the opportunities of using a Bigfoot Blimp below.

By Jake Taylor

POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI/CNN) - An Idaho professor is planning a search for Bigfoot, and he's building a new aircraft to help him find the legendary creature.
"A state of the art aerial wildlife survey in order to try to track and locate a sasquatch," said Prof. Jeff Meldrum of Idaho State University.

That's the plan. With the help of a Utah-based company, Meldrum says he'll soon build a Bigfoot blimp to try and track down the legendary creature.

"It looks like something out of a science fiction movie. It's a dirigible, an airship that has two air cells that gives it a kind of a catamaran stability in the air," said Meldrum.

He says the zeppelin will be state-of-the-art, filled with high-techequipment, and infrared cameras that will give researchers the best possible change of spotting a Sasquatch.

"It's not just looking at a little blob of red light against a blue background. This is high definition videography that will use a telephoto lens that can zoom in from a mile away literally," said Meldrum.
Of course, before the airship has its maiden voyage, it has to be built. Meldrum says the money to put it together will come from private donations.

Beyond the more attention-grabbing goal of finding Bigfoot, Meldrum says the planned aircraft has many other possible uses.
"All types of wildlife studies even geological studies could be conducted with data that could be garnered from an airship gathering this type of aerial surveillance imagery," said Meldrum.

He says he's planning on getting construction started within the next few months, and have it in the air by the end of the spring.
KIFI/CNN

Slate Online Magazine Bashes Bigfoot

Sign on Pikes Peak Highway Photograph by Ashish S. Hareet/Wikimedia Commons

"Bigfoot is not a monster but a meme." -- Brian Switek

Slate is an online magazine first owned by Microsoft and currently by the Washington Post, it is known  as a current affairs and culture magazine. Although if you ask our opinion, it has never found a niche that distinguishes itself with any character. However it is not the opinion of the magazine overall that we want to focus on, it is today's article (11/21/2012) written by Brian Switek. Brian has been critical of Bigfoot before, but seems to especially target Jeff Meldrum. Earlier we covered Mr. Switek's critique of Meldrum.

Mr. Switek is at it again, criticizing Meldrum and Bigfooters in general. While we think skeptics are healthy for the Bigfoot community, we prefer the ones who have a more balanced approach and actually give constructive thought to our endeavor. We prefer the Brian Dunnings and Sharon Hills of the world.

To be honest, we look forward to Bigfoot criticism. We look forward to some insight to ourselves that we may not have the objectivity to see. Unfortunately Mr. Switek delivers the same old arguments, without a single new thought or novel take on the Bigfoot Phenomena. You can read a short excerpt below to get a sense of the direction Mr. Switek is going. You can follow the link below to read more of the same.

Jeff Meldrum wants to search for Bigfoot by using a remote-controlled blimp. Because when you’re looking for a mythical creature famous for eluding all who search for it, a giant, buzzing, looming balloon is clearly the way to go. Meldrum, a tenured Idaho State University anthropologist who established his career studying primate foot anatomy before shifting his focus to monsters, expects he’ll have to raise $300,000 to get the project airborne. He’s trying (and so far failing) to get funding from private sources. (No surprise that his home institution wants nothing to do with the endeavor.) That’s a lot of money and effort for what will undoubtedly turn out to be a collection of blurry photographs that look like Instagram snapshots from a visit to the Pacific Northwest woods.

I loved reading breathless tales of encounters with the Yeti, Loch Ness Monster, Jersey Devil, Bigfoot, and other cryptids as a child, but those stories have never been supported by anything more substantial than an out-of-focus snapshot or embellished campfire story. And in the case of North America’s legendary nonhuman ape, the picture historians and sociologists have pieced together is that Bigfoot and other shaggy humanoids are cultural inventions that we have repeatedly conjured so that there’s always something wild and mysterious in the woods. Stories about Bigfoot began to proliferate after expeditions in the Himalayas in the 1950s reported ambiguous Yeti footprints—none of which have been convincingly attributed to a Gigantopithecus descendant or other prehistoric hominid holdover. Sasquatch fans have since done a bit of retconning [sic] by claiming Native American stories and dubious historical encounters as part of their mythology, but the trail is clear. Bigfoot is not a monster but a meme.

SRC: Slate Magazine

Dr.Meldrum Backs 3-Year-Old Bigfoot Blimp Project

Rendering of the Bigfoot Blimp to be used in the Falcon Project

We have been covering the Falcon Project since February 2010. Click the following link to read our entire Falcon Project coverage. The blimp project has been trying to get off the ground since before then. This may change if Dr. Jeff Meldrum, Professor of Idaho State University, can raise over $300,000.

Originally the Falcon Project was the dream child of gold dredger, William Barnes, and business-owner, Jason Valenti.  Back in 2010 the Bigfoot blimp had a different design (see picture below)

2010 version of Bigfoot blimp

On November 4th 2010 Reuters picked up the story read excerpt below.

Now Meldrum is seeking to raise $300,000-plus in private donations to build the remote-controlled dirigible, equip it with a thermal-imaging camera and send it aloft in hopes of catching an aerial glimpse of Bigfoot, also known as sasquatch.

Meldrum, author of "Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science," said the undertaking represents a giant leap in the quest for an animal he believes may have descended from a giant ape that once inhabited Asia and crossed the Bering land bridge to North America.

"The challenge with any animal that is rare, solitary, nocturnal and far-ranging in habitat is to find them and observe them in the wild; this technology provides for that," he said.

SRC: Reuters.com

Since the Reuters piece Utah's KSL.com has picked up on the news and posted two videos on it's website.

SRC: KSL.com

Discovery News has high praise for Dr. Jeff Meldrum's credentials and rightly notes his reputation is why the Falcon Project is getting attention:

Part of the reason that the plan -- dubbed the Falcon Project -- is gaining such notoriety is the participation of Jeffrey Meldrum. In stark contrast to the vast majority of Bigfoot hunters and enthusiasts across the country and on television, Meldrum has legitimate scientific credentials as a professor of anatomy and anthropologist.

While these areas of research are not directly relevant to Bigfoot, Meldrum is more academically qualified than most to examine and analyze alleged Bigfoot tracks and photographs.

SRC: Discovery News

According to TheWeek.com it is a "Wacky Plan"

The plan, dubbed the Falcon Project, was first envisioned by a Utah man named William Barnes who allegedly came face-to-face with a "well-manicured" hairy creature in northern California sometime in 1997 and subsequently approached Meldrum with the notion of finding Bigfoot using an airship. The Falcon Project is projected to take flight next spring. 

That is, at least, if it ever takes off. Fundraising efforts have been slow. Reuters reports that Meldrum has yet to raise a single dollar for his cause. Still, he's hardly the only party interested in finding the legendary beast. Spike TV is offering a $10 million reward to anyone who can offer irrefutable evidence of Bigfoot's existence as part of a new reality show.
SRC: The Week

4-Part Sasquatch Series: Search for the north American ape

In August, 2010, the Humboldt Beacon carried the article, “Validating Bigfoot” which described the work of researchers with the Falcon Project, a plan that intends to carry out research in Humboldt County. Jason Valenti, a member of the Falcon Project team expands the article with a four part series, which concluded yesterday (October 7th, 2010).

For your convenience we summarized each of individual reports filed in this four part series. And the end of this post we also include links to the individual articles. As you can see from the summaries Valenti strategically recaps our the shared knowledge while weaving in Lloyd Pye's Hominoid Theories. he concludes in the final article with details of the Falcon Project.

Summary of Part 1: Search for the north American ape

What is a hominoid?

Hominoids are what have, up to now, been collectively labeled as Pre-Humans, (post- Miocene Apes). These are the tailless short armed apes that we've all seen in the fossil record, from the Australopithecines to the Genus Homo.

Almost every Native American and First Nation Tribe has a name to describe these creatures. When did hominoids live?

Since we now know that Hominoid creatures did exist in the past, the relevant question today is, “Do they still exist in modern times?”

Many people are surprised when they learn that approximately 45 percent of the arable land in world has never been foot-surveyed.

Summary Part 2: The great hoax of the 1800s

In the latter part of the 1800s, everyone thought that the Great Panda was a joke, a hoax and a grand tale that hunters brought back to augment their tales of adventure. Proving the existence of the Panda is a perfect example of how a good sized animal can remain elusive for a long period of time in a given region.

The difficulty in finding those Pandas had nothing to do with what the Panda was doing to remain elusive, but everything to do with how we humans behave in the environments of our world. As much as people would like to believe that we can live in the deep forest and the jungles on this planet, there is an overwhelmingly large amount of evidence showing that we are not biologically equipped to do so, let alone pursue elusive animals on foot.

How humans do it vs. how hominoids do it

Humans take down sections of forests and jungles to set up their communities and farms for their basic survival needs. Hominoids gather, hunt, eat, sleep, reproduce and live happily and easily in the forests that the planet provides them. Humans take years to painstakingly build roads over mountains. Hominoids just climb straight up said mountains.
Humans don't live anything like Hominoids, but we've been trying to track them their way, in their environment, on foot, where none of our modern conveniences, farms or roads exist. Ecological niches, like where the panda lives, are perfect examples of why Hominoids may dwell in total self sufficiency, and completely out of the average range of humans.

Summary of Part 3: The hammer drops - a flexible foot?

In 2007, it was recognized by science that unusual footprints found in the remote areas of North America were likely made by some sort of animal currently unknown to science. For years, researchers and a handful of scientists having been working on establishing the identity of the maker of these footprints. The footprints were given the scientific name Anthropoidipes ameriborealis (North American ape foot). The heel of the Hominoid foot has an extension to it and a fore-shortening of the meta-tarsal foot bones, giving the ankle bones a positioning more forward than seen in human feet. The ankle bones are placed on a much larger ankle base bone that supports their bodies, which are significantly heavier than humans. This discovery demonstrated that the makers of the tracks had to have a living fleshy foot that possessed flexibility unlike human or fake wooden feet.

Despite irrefutable evidence using Ichnology, the existence of Hominoids continues to be ignored.

When photogrammetric analysis of modern versus fossilized Hominoid tracks are compared with each other, they look almost identical amongst all other fossilized tracks and track ways discovered around the world, like the ones in Laetoli, discovered by Dr. Mary Leakey. Incidentally, fossilized Neandertal foot tracks, from 30,000 years ago, look almost identical to the oldest Hominoid fossilized foot tracks that we have on record, not to mention also looking like the ones found in the last 50 years. Besides having the tough questions about how Hominoids can possibly exist, there is an even more disturbing list of questions, for consideration, when pondering what the implications will mean if they do exist.

If evolution is true and these are our ancestors, how and why did human bones become so much thinner and lighter than Hominoids in a mere 12,000 years? Why are our muscles five to ten times weaker, pound for pound, than any of the living primates? Why do human hair and nails keep growing? How did humans develop a neocortex four times that the size of our closest ancestor?

Summary of Part 4: An unlikely trio

In December of 2009, Hominoid eyewitness William Barnes, heard a radio show being broadcast on the internet. The person being interviewed that night was Hominoid and Human Origins Researcher, Jason Valenti. Coincidentally, Valenti and his research colleague, Michael Birkinshaw, already had many conversations about getting up in the air to do the research.

In 2007, Birkinshaw shared with Valenti, “If we could get up in the air with a blimp of some sort, then we could get close to the Hominoids. It quickly became obvious to Valenti and Barnes that they had to try this idea out. Barnes titled the effort “The Falcon Project” because the approach is in the air, above the Hominoids, just like a Falcon would be, above their prey, just before capturing them using the element of surprise.

The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and then the team really knew they had a great idea.

Currently The Falcon Project is in the process of acquiring the necessary funding to launch the project. Negotiations are underway with select individuals and organizations to quickly mobilize if a hominoid carcass, or some other type of “hard” evidence was found. The Falcon Project is the most dynamic, technologically advanced and well-equipped project that has ever been created for the purposes of finding evidence that Hominoids still live among us in the forests and jungles of the world.

Validating Big Foot

4-Part series Search for the north American ape

1. Part 1: Search for the north American ape


2. Part 2: The great hoax of the 1800s


3. Part 3: The hammer drops - a flexible foot?


4. Part 4: An unlikely trio

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There's Always Room for Pye
Pye Calls Bigfoot Hominoids
Idaho State U Article on Dr Meldrum

Valenti of SasquatchResearch.net Drums up Media

The picture above is Jason Valenti in a bigfoot costume for a film festival commercial. He is also the man in charge of markeing for the Falcon project, a research endeavor to document Bigfoot with the help of 35 foot blimps. If our facebook page is any indication. Most folks in the community are unenthused about the Falcon Project. Not because it is not a fascinating idea, but because there has not been much happening since the project has been announced over a year ago.

Recently, however, the project may be getting some traction. We can only guess this is why Jason and crew have been getting attention from mainstream media. At the Humboldt Beacon, a local news weekly, Jason Valenti has penned the first, in a four-part series. On his website SasquatchResearch.net his short bio is as follows:

Jason Valenti is a resident of Ferndale, WA.
He was introduced to the Bigfoot/Sasquatch phenomenon
in 1996 one spring morning at 4 a,m. in the Appalachicola
National Forest near Tallahassee, Florida. Since that
moment he has been driven to find out more about this
elusive species. He moved from Largo, FL to Bellingham,
WA in 1999. In the 10 years of residency he has
discovered some very interesting areas in the Pacific
Northwest that he frequents with several other
researchers. His research has led him into the same
areas that Lloyd Pye has tapped into and he is in the
process of writing a book and developing a foundation
called Hominoid Research Group for the further studies of
Hominoids.

You can read the Humboldt Beacon article below. If you want our first impression, he seems to tie Dr. Jeff Meldrum's research in the same article as some of Loyd Pye's hominoid theories.

In 2007 there was an incident that took place in the scientific community that created interest of considerable proportion. Most people didn't really notice what had happened, but Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum had struck the anvil of science so hard that the shock waves of his published paper entitled “Evidence for the Existence of North American Apes” will continue to be felt for years to come.
Scattered across the United States at that time were a handful of men who would feel that shock wave, and eventually unite under the same purpose: to find out exactly what the creature is that is mentioned in Dr. Meldrum's paper, and to capture it on film.

What is a hominoid?

Hominoids are what have, up to now, been collectively labeled as Pre-Humans, (post- Miocene Apes). These are the tailless short armed apes that we've all seen in the fossil record, from the Australopithecines to the Genus Homo.

It simply means the family of apes (according to classification) that resemble humans in their ability to walk on two legs instead of four. Outside of that distinction, Hominoids seem to share most of the same characteristics in the family of Hominidea with other apes.

Although the article never mentions Lloyd Pye, the hominoid reference is a pretty strong association to those who know of Jason Valenti.

Fans, you know we think a good theory can come from anywhere, but we wouldn't consider the research of Dr. Jeff Meldrum and that Lloyd Pye to be in the same camp. More specifically there is an extra-terrestrial aspect of Pye's theories.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Falcon Project: A blimp to find Bigfoot
Dr. Jeff Meldrum Explains Lack of Bones

EXTERNAL LINKS
Falcon Project Website: www.bigfoot24-7.com
Humboldt Beacon Article
SasquatchResearch.net
Lloyd Pye Wikipedia Page

Bigfoot Balloons for Falcon Project Yet to be Built

We have been following the falcon project all year. We first brought it up in February with our post The Falcon Project: A Blimp to Find Bigfoot and recently had an update, aptly titled The Falcon Project Update

We have been so excited about this blimp. Initially described as:

"The blimp is 35 feet long and holds 1800 cubic feet of helium. It is run on electric batteries and is remote-controlled from the ground. The batteries will enable it to be airborne for five hours at a time, and can cover about five miles in any direction."

In a new article by a CBS Affiliate, Sacramento's Channel 13, Neda Iranpour reports most of what is already covered in our previous two post. Interestingly we learn the Blimps have yet to be built.

"He's still waiting for the balloons to be built. He's also waiting for funding from groups as far away as Russia."

Although this does not directly contradict the information on the website. We had the feeling that these Blimps were already built.

The website still has a paragraph stating:

"Since this website was launched, expert technicians have blessed this project toward a remote-controlled, dual-airship, 35 feet long, with a patented propulsion system, run by a very quiet gas engine that will keep the blimp up for five hours, and for a five mile radius."

We sent a message out to William to get further clarification and hope to update you fans as soon as possible. We want to know when these things are gonna start patrolling the forest from above!

One thing we can say is the official Falcon Project website (www.bigfoot24-7.com) has also been updated. We thought the Business Plan page was worth reading.

OUR PREVIOUS POSTS
The Falcon Project: A Blimp to Find Bigfoot
The Falcon Project Update

RELATED LINKS
CBS Channel 13 article
Falcon Project Website
SasquatchResearch.net

Falcon Project Update: 35ft Blimp Designed to Search for Bigfoot

The Humboldt beacon updates thier continuing coverage of the Falcon project. The project is headed by William Barnes of Nevada City as a joint endeavor which includes William Dranginis of Virginia Bigfoot Research and Jason Valenti of Sasquatch Research. Together, the team has produced a 19-page Business Plan that details the Falcon Project in full. The Falcon Project website is at www.bigfoot24-7.com.

We have our own editorial, on the Falcon Project (read: A Blimp to Find Bigfoot) dicussing it's website ties to Lloyd Pye's version of Bigfoot, hominoids (read: Theres always room for Pye). Pye claims that these animals (Bigfoot, Yeti, Etc..) are Earth's only indigenous bipedal primates, and that early hominids such as Neanderthals and Australopithecines are not intermediates in human evolution.

Barnes explained that his team would base their first search efforts on locations known to have been visited by the creature. “We would go to an area around Klammath River, and I would be using historical sighting maps and documentation that has been deemed credible. I would not stop in one place for long durations, since there have been many sightings on the entire West Coast,” Barnes clarified.

And yes, Barnes plans on using a unique, one-of-a-kind 35-foot blimp that will hover over areas of special interest. “Mine is being custom-made for the job it has to do. It is a remote control and is being made to go up to five hours glide time,” Barnes said. Meanwhile, his RV will act as a control center during the flyover and film investigation.

Not going into great detail to reveal his procedures, Barnes said that his system is all run by electric, and all high-tech. “I can see up to 2,200 feet in the dark, and this will be nearly all night work.”

Barnes acknowleges that films can be simple to fake, especially small ones. His plot therefore, is to film a documentary following the building of the blimp, installation of infrared cameras, and volunteers at work.

”The thermal-imaging cameras are the newest in today's technology, and are the same as the ones being used by the military. The infrared camera can describe an image in the dark, as clearly as though it were in daylight,” Barnes added.

To help Barnes in the endeavor, the Big Foot stalker will use a five-person crew who will be alert to the creature's presence around the clock. Not worried of skeptics or naysayers, Barnes clarified that the reason why his project was concieved is to prove that the creature is real, and is not something fabricated to sell books and movies. “Because it is controversial, human curiousity drives us to investigate further,” he said.

EXTERNAL LINKS
Falcon Project Website: www.bigfoot24-7.com
08.05.2010 Humboldt Beacon Article
Theres always room for Pye
SasquatchResearch.net
Lloyd Pye Wikipedia Page

The Falcon Project: A Blimp to Find Bigfoot

According to Bigfoot24-7.com the blimp is described as:

The blimp is 35 feet long and holds 1800 cubic feet of helium. It is run on electric batteries and is remote-controlled from the ground. The batteries will enable it to be airborne for five hours at a time, and can cover about five miles in any direction.

The thermal- imaging cameras (we assume these will be on the blimp) are the newest in today's technology, and are the same as the ones being used by the military. The infra-red camera can portray an image in the dark, as clearly as though it were in daylight.

The territory to explore, are spots that have traditionally been known for their multiple sightings. The target states for filming are Northern California,
Oregon, Washington, Texas, Arkansas, and Florida,( in search of the "Skunk Ape.")

Even if the blimp fails to find Bigfoot, with all that helium, think how long you could make funny voices. You could probably recite all the chipmunk lines from both Alvin and the Chipmunk movies--the original and the squeakquel!

The man behind this blimp effort is William Barnes. In an article at the Humboldt Beacon, Barnes discusses the encounter that triggered his interest in Bigfoot and the methodology that he will use to search for her.

Having seen the creature with his own two eyes, Barnes is convinced there is something to the stories, and is determined to set out in July to capture photographic proof of the creature. To help rally support around the investigation, Barnes set up a website (www.bigfoot24-7.com) and described his search as “the most penetrating search for Sasquatch/Bigfoot ever conducted in North America.”

From his website, Barnes wrote, “As a weekend goldminer in Northern California, I had such a creature walk up to my tent, so close I could have touched it, and then walk past me and up the side of the hill. Since that night by the creek, I have pondered for years, about how one could be filmed for any length of time, and how it could be studied in it's own safe habitat.”

When Barnes arrives in mid-July, he will be focusing on areas that have a history of sightings, “including the area around the Klammath River, and yes, I would be using historical sighting maps and documentation that has been deemed credible. I would not stop in one place for long durations, since there have been many sightings on the entire West Coast,” Barnes explained.

Barnes added that a great deal of preparation would be in order to make the study possible. “I would want residents of each area I plan to be in, to know what the blimp is doing there. It would be unfortunate if a pot grower, who didn't understand my intentions, shot down my expensive blimp.”

On the bigfoot24-7 site there is an interesting positive review by SasquatchResearch.net, a web site known for supporting Loyd Pye's Hominoid theories. In his book Everything You Know Is Wrong, Pye claims that these animals (Bigfoot, Yeti, Etc..) are Earth's only indigenous bipedal primates, and that early hominids such as Neanderthals and Australopithecines are not intermediates in human evolution.

EXTERNAL LINKS
Falcon Project Website: www.bigfoot24-7.com
Humboldt Beacon Article
SasquatchResearch.net
Lloyd Pye Wikipedia Page