A new product which could help to pinpoint survivors more quickly in the aftermath of an aviation or maritime disaster is blazing a trail at Farnborough.
The search and rescue beacon Sarbe 7 Plus is the latest addition to the Sarbe-GPS product range of Signature Industries (H3/A3).
The company has already negotiated a tri-service contract with the Royal Air Force, the British Army and the Royal Navy for one version of the Sarbe and is looking for a fat order book after Farnborough.
A similar method of tracking hit the headlines during the conflict in Bosnia when American pilot Scott O'Grady was shot down by a Bosnian Serb surface-to-air missile in June 1995. His hazardous five-day evasion of Serb troops ended when he was pinpointed by the US Marine Corps rescue team.
Linking personal locator beacons to the GPS network feeds rescue ships and aircraft with the position of survivors, accurate to 100m. The GPS system transmits the lat/long position and an unique user identification directly to the on-board computers of the rescue teams.
Signature is also marketing a GPS convert system, again for military use, which is designed to be nearly impossible to intercept.
Coded data bursts are used to transmit sensitive information and general manager Kevin Kearns is confident that the product will make significant inroads into the world market.
Source: Flight Daily News