PROJECTS
Explorer Consulting has been involved in a number of innovative projects, from expeditions to film and explore the R.M.S. Titanic, H.M.H.S. Britannic and Bismarck; to finding and recovering historic aircraft, shipwrecks and rockets; conducting scientific research on Mt. Everest; and launching the first private spaceflights. We excel in helping clients explore remote locations and achieve goals that others have only imagined.
SUN VALLEY TOUR DE FORCE
A "no speed limit" motoring event to benefit a good cause
The Sun Valley Tour de Force is a "no speed limit" automotive event in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area north of Ketchum, Idaho. Participants from all over the world hurl supercars down the highway in search of their cars' top speeds, past cheering spectators, all for a good cause. The event, which takes place on the third weekend in July, raises money for local charities. With the event drawing capacity crowds and international attention, the organizers reached out to Explorer Consulting in 2014 to provide specialized risk management and operational advice for the predecessor event, the Sun Valley Road Rally, and again in 2018 for the Sun Valley Tour de Force. David Concannon now serves on the Board of the Sun Valley Community Chest, which organized the rally in 2016 and now organizes other motorsports events.
To read David Concannon's article about the Sun Valley Road Rally for SVPN, click here.
To see the 2018 Sun Valley Tour de Force highlight video, click here.
APOLLO F-1 ENGINE SEARCH & RECOVERY PROJECT
Honored with the 2014 Explorers Club Citation of Merit for
"an outstanding feat of exploration."
The Apollo F-1 Engine Search & Recovery Project was the brainchild of Amazon.com founder, Jeff Bezos. Its purpose was to find the massive Apollo F-1 rocket engines that launched men to the Moon, at a depth of 14,000 feet/4,267 meters in the Atlantic Ocean, recover the engines, bring them back to the United States, conserve the engines, put them on public display, and hopefully inspire youth to invent and explore. The project, which successfully recovered the center F-1 engine from Apollo 11 and other Apollo missions, was organized and led by David Concannon, and comprised a team of sonar, recovery and conservation experts, archaeologists and filmmakers put together by Explorer Consulting for Bezos Expeditions.
To read David Concannon’s article about the Apollo F-1 Project, “Relics of Apollo – high-tech recovery on the high seas,” from Spring 2014 issue of The Explorers Journal, click here.
For additional updates and information about the Apollo F-1 Project, click here.
To read the Flag Report to The Explorers Club, click here.
R.M.S. TITANIC EXPEDITIONS
Six expeditions to explore the wreck site, film and recover artifacts.
David Concannon and Explorer Consulting have been advisors to six expeditions to explore the wreck of the R.M.S. Titanic. Mr. Concannon has been a participant in three Titanic expeditions. He has made four dives to explore the wreck site, at a depth of 12,500 feet/3,810 meters, including the first dive of the century in 2000, and he led the last expedition to explore the wreck site with deep submersibles in 2005. Mr. Concannon has explored almost four square miles of the Titanic wreck site, during which he has discovered areas that were never known to exist, including a new debris field far to the south of what was previously thought to be the southern edge of the wreck site. These new discoveries have provided valuable insights into the final moments of the Titanic and the 1,500 people who lost their lives in this tragedy.
To read David Concannon’s article “Titanic: The First Dive of the New Century,” from the Winter 2003 issue of Fathoms magazine, click here.
CHANCE VOUGHT F4U-1 CORSAIR SURVEY
Survey of the last known F4U-1 "Birdcage Canopy" Corsairs.
On May 16, 1944, two Chance Vought F4U-1 “Birdcage Canopy” Corsairs collided during a training flight and plummeted into a fresh water lake. Both Royal Navy pilots were killed and their bodies were never recovered. In 2003, Historic Aircraft Recovery Corp discovered the historic warbirds, two of the first 95 Corsairs ever built and the only examples known to exist, on the bottom of a frigid lake. Litigation ensued and the British Government claimed, without evidence, that the aircraft were owned by the Crown and war graves. Explorer Consulting conducted a site survey which confirmed that the aircraft were empty, along with legal research showing that the planes were merely loaned to the British Government. Additional surveys are planned.
To view video footage of one the aircraft, click here.
X-PRIZE FOUNDATION
The first private space flights and extension of the prize model.
David Concannon was General Counsel to the X-PRIZE Foundation when it awarded a $10 million Ansari X-Prize to Paul Allen and Scaled Composites for the first privately funded space flights of SpaceShipOne in 2004, and during its expansion of the X-PRIZE model to encourage the development of other new technologies, including the Google Lunar X-PRIZE, Progressive Automotive X-PRIZE and Archon Genomics X-PRIZE. He also served as General Counsel to a variety of other organizations associated with private space exploration, including the Zero Gravity Corporation (a privately held space entertainment and tourism company) and the Rocket Racing League.
ATLANTIC SANDS EXPEDITION
Three miles deep in the Bermuda Triangle.
In 2001, David Concannon and a team of veteran explorers participated in the Atlantic Sands Expedition, a deep water expedition to investigate shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean. The team discovered the remains of the world’s deepest wooden shipwreck — an American slave trader that foundered in 1810 and is now lying three miles deep in the heart of the Bermuda Triangle. The team recovered 1,400 silver and gold coins and priceless examples of the “Triangle Trade” in human slaves.
To read David Concannon and Don Walsh’s article “Atlantic Sands,” from the June 2008 issue of Diver magazine, click here.
EVEREST EXTREME EXPEDITION
Testing advanced medical monitoring equipment on Mt. Everest.
In 1998, David Concannon provided legal and logistical advice to the Everest Extreme Expedition (E3), an advanced medical clinic established at Mt. Everest Base Camp to study physiology and tele-medicine in extreme environments. E3 was organized by the NASA-Yale University Commercial Space Center for Medical Informatics and Technology Applications (CSC/MITA) to provide medical support of climbers from the Base Camp and scientific validation of the latest advanced and medical technologies being developed through the CSC/MITA in conjunction with NASA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the US Army Medical Research and Material Command (MRMC) and the MIT Media Lab.