Lockheed Indago Locks in on Distress Calls With Project Lifesaver
Photo: Robb Cohen Photography & Video.
All too often, first responders are called to recover persons suffering from cognitive disorders only to arrive too late. Deploying helicopters to guide them from the air certainly can help, but with significant limitations. Even if weather and visibility cooperate — an iffy proposition at best — such aircraft could take a minimum of 45 minutes to take off.
Enter Project Lifesaver International, Port St. Lucie, Florida, a nonprofit partnership dedicated to helping first responders locate persons with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Disease, traumatic brain injuries and other such conditions as quickly as possible.
Gene Saunders, Project Lifesaver’s founder and director, believes the chances for success will increase significantly because of a cooperative effort the group has entered with Lockheed Martin Corp.
By deploying Lockheed’s Indago UAS, Saunders says, responder teams no longer are bound by extreme conditions. Searches that previously would take hours could be completed in minutes — critical to the survival of potential victims. The organization has conducted successful tests and launches in extreme cold in Norway and 120-degree heat and sand in a desert in the Middle East, with the aircraft sustaining nothing more than cosmetic damage.
“It’s very easy to fly,” says Ken Young, a project manager with the organization. “It has software features to prevent accidents and flies safely and easily. You don’t have to operate it like a normal aircraft. It’s simply a point-and-click operation,” he says.
