Not to be confused with DARPA’s project of the same name to develop a Hypersonic Weapon System (HWS), ‘The Falcon Project’ is a one of the more preposterous scientific ‘studies’ ever green-lit. Set to utilise a state-of-the-art, remote-controlled, camera-equipped airship, the project is hoping to find definitive proof that ‘Bigfoot’ exists.

It's the culmination of years of hard work tracking down the Sasquatch on ground, and a commitment by the project's founder, William Barnes – who has dedicated the majority of his life in finding evidence the mythical Ape-like creature exists - to bring back hard video evidence of the hairy, bipedal, humanoid creature from within its natural environment. Barnes himself claims to have witnessed it himself fifteen years ago.

“The Falcon Project was inspired by an eyewitness experience of a North American Ape in the mountains of California.  After years of research and networking with other North American Ape researchers in the field (who have been trying to capture footage of the creature from the ground) William Barnes, the founder of this project, came to the conclusion that there is a need to approach this research from the air.”

In essence, it's an attempt to observe the mythical 'Bigfoot' with “minimal or no disturbance of the subject's natural behaviour,” and one that will utilise an unmanned 45'-foot airship known as 'Aurora Mk II' that, thanks to a proprietary propulsion system, can travel at speeds of 35-45 mph with high manoeuvrability, but also the stealthiness that is vitally important to a project of this scope.

With the only known pieces of video 'evidence' of Bigfoot of poor quality, distorted or from afar, don't expect the team behind the project to skimp on camera equipment either. Fitted to the airship will be cameras capable of filming in infrared, thermal imaging and high-definition. While all will of course be gyro-stabilized also, meaning even if the Sasquatch is on the move, the images the camera produces should always be of the best quality.

Think what you will about the aims of the project itself – assuming Bigfoot exists to me seems as plausible as someone insisting little green men roam the dusty plains of the Moon – the technology behind it is what makes 'The Falcon Project' worth talking about. However, one question remains: just how long will such a project need to run before the non-existence of Bigfoot can truly be put to rest?

Richard Birkett