Falcon Project hopes to find Bigfoot with unmanned airship

Jeff Meldrum, an anatomy and anthropology professor at ISU, said in a press statement that he has been recruited as scientific adviser to the Falcon Project.

The project will first use a team of volunteer trackers, biologists and wildlife specialists, many with military experience, called Sasquatch Trekkers, to identify telltale signs of Bigfoot — hair, remains, feces and even sounds, the professor said in the statement.

The plan, according to Meldrum, is to have the Sasquatch Trekkers work around the clock for six months. The team intends to use GPS mapping of areas it considers would be potential lodging and food sources for what are known in scientific terminology as relict hominoids, or in layman’s terms, large, hairy, man-like Bigfoots.

“Establishing the existence of the species based on physical remains is the ultimate goal of the search,” Meldrum writes.

Once that goal is achieved, he writes, “Data collected by the Sasquatch Trekkers will establish the foundation for designing the aerial survey strategies utilized in the Falcon Project … and will provide the basis for the deployment of the Aurora airship and placement of the mobile command center and ground teams.”

The Aurora is a 35-foot dual-cell catamaran-style airship. Meldrum said it can stay airborne for about 10 hours and carry a 75-pound payload consisting of cutting-edge thermal imaging cameras and high definition videography equipment. The professor said the airship will be operated and monitored by a knowledgeable ground crew. Thermal imaging is needed, Meldrum said, because the Bigfoot creature is considered to be nocturnal.

The Aurora is the invention of Stephen Barclay, an aeronautical engineer and owner of Remote Aerial Tripod Systems, or RATS Inc. in Alberta, Canada.

The Falcon Project itself is the brainchild of William Barnes of St. George, Utah, who believes that using drones, or UAVs, would be the best way to find North America’s great ape. Meldrum states Barnes believes he saw Bigfoot one summer night in 1997 at a remote gold-dredging camp in California’s Sierra Mountains.

The project’s funding, like the Aurora itself, seems up in the air as of now.

“Our team members are initially working on a volunteer basis until sufficient funds are available to compensate them for their time and expertise,” Meldrum told the Journal.

The ISU professor also revealed a funding strategy for the project.

“The Falcon Project is tapping the crowd sourcing pipeline, in addition to a select few significant and generous benefactors who desire only to be part of this historical exploratory project,” he told the Journal on Thursday.

“Donations made to the ISU Foundation, which has established an account for the Falcon Project, provide a tax benefit to the donor, and assurance of institutional oversight, but we are not approaching the funding of this project as an ‘investment’ with expectations of individual dividends.”

Meldrum emphasized the word “investment” in reference to a Wall Street Journal article published Wednesday about Carmine “Tom” Biscardi, a partner in the newly formed Bigfoot Project Investments, which seeks investors to raise up to $3 million in a proposed initial public offering, or IPO.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the company intends to spend $113,805 a year on expeditions to find Bigfoot.

But, if Meldrum has his way, not a penny of what Biscardi and his business partners raise from making movies of Bigfoot expeditions and selling the resulting DVDs will end up in Falcon Project coffers.