Kiwi safety device bought by Cessna
30 Sep 2008
A satellite tracking device invented by an innovative Kiwi in the farming back-blocks of the central North Island, has been picked up by international aviation giant Cessna.
The small portable safety device known as Spidertracks, combines GPS with a global satellite network and will be used by Cessna in planes world-wide.
Spidertracks is the brainchild of New Zealand inventor Don Sandbrook, who was inspired to create a global tracking device after a frustrating 17-day search for a missing helicopter three years ago.
The device caught the attention of Cessna more than eight months ago and has been undergoing extensive testing to ensure 100 percent compatibility with the company’s aircraft.
Highly portable device
As well as the nod of approval from Cessna, Spidertracks now has clients in more than 28 countries. Highly portable and cost effective, the palm-sized device can be used in planes, vehicles and boats, as well as for remote or risky activities like hunting and climbing.
Spidertracks works by combining a GPS with a global satellite network into one device that can be tracked anywhere in the world in real-time. Unlike emergency locator beacons which can be destroyed upon impact, Spidertracks is connected to the Iridium satellite network and transmitted to Google Earth immediately, essentially taking the ‘search’ out of ‘search and rescue’.
"It's a safety device so that if an aircraft crashes or goes missing it's leaving a breadcrumb trail of where it's been while it's been a healthy aircraft," says Sandbrook.
Local Recognition
Spidertracks has received recognition on a local level as well, winning the Supreme Award at Manawatu’s 2008 regional business awards where judges saw the huge potential for growth and development of the product.
Inventor Don Sandbrook is a helicopter pilot, and developed Spidertracks at his home in the Pohangina Valley about half an hour from Palmerston North in the central North Island Manawatu farming district. His small hi-tech research centre now has counterparts in Europe and the United States scrambling to catch up.
Small and effective
Sandbrook’s invention is about twice the size of a cellphone and can be fixed with Velcro to the dashboard of a vehicle, ground or air, and plugged into a cigarette lighter power outlet.
Once in place, Spidertracks logs altitude, speed and position at requested intervals and the course and data show up on a map that can be accessed from computer terminals anywhere.
Should the aircraft crash, the site will be shown on the map. If the aircraft gets into difficulties, the pilot can shorten the reporting interval to reduce a possible search area.
Smart system
The pilot can also use the system to activate pre-recorded rescue instructions or issue more mundane messages such as "Send fuel tanker" or "I'll be home in 10 minutes".
"There's quite a lot of 'smarts' gone into the system," says Sandbrook. "What we've done and how we've done it are world firsts.
"The day this system saves a life is the day we achieve what we set out to achieve."
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