First Responders: Did you miss Neoteric Rescue Hovercraft at #FDIC2022?

 #FDIC ATTENDEES: Thanks to all who visited us this year. We hope you had the chance to see a Neoteric Rescue Hovercraft in action. Why is this important? In 2016, Neoteric’s first year at the FDIC, Fire Apparatus Magazine reported … 

“Neoteric Hovercraft Inc. … The Terre Haute, Indiana, manufacturer produces a hovercraft product that is used in recreational and rescue service applications. Hovercraft units have been used in rescue units for more than 40 years, providing a unique and safe way to save lives. Water and ice conditions are main areas of use; however, rough terrain, mud, and wetlands are additional areas where a hovercraft can be efficiently used. The purchase price of this life-saving piece of equipment is surprisingly inexpensive.”

 For these, and many other reasons, first responders worldwide rely on Neoteric rescue hovercraft …

The Neoteric Rescue Hovercraft is the industry standard worldwide. Not only can it take you where no other vehicle can go, it operates more like an aircraft than a boat, flying 9 inches above the surface. An added bonus is it's constructed so that neither the propellers nor any other part of the craft will strike submerged objects. Hovercraft are safe from outboard motor or propeller damage

See what just a few of your fellow first responders have to say about the effectiveness of their Neoteric Hovercraft …

 Mansfield Fire Department, Texas: "The benefit of having the hovercraft is we do not have to send our personnel into the water to retrieve victims. It can also hover over logs, car tires and any other debris, unlike boats, that could be a hazard in the water. A hovercraft is the answer to a faster rescue - a safer rescue."

Davis County Sheriff's Office, Utah: "Our hovercraft, without question, has saved lives. Much of our county is covered by the Great Salt Lake, and when the water is low it leaves miles of mudflats boats can't reach. We can't get airboats out there. When it's extremely windy it's hard to get an aircraft or helicopter out there, and even walking out is impossible. We were putting rescuers in harm's way, but the hovercraft allows us to hover over mud, ice or water and get right to the patient - to literally reach out our hand and pull them out."

Central Fraser Valley Search & Rescue Society, Canada: "The hovercraft gets us into areas that, before, we weren't able to reach, areas that our jet boat can't get into because we ingest debris into the impeller. And the hovercraft saves us a lot of time."

North Muskegon Fire Department, Michigan: "Our hovercraft have saved more lives that all our fire engines combined. Since 1985, more than 255 people have been rescued from Muskegon area lakes using the hovercraft. More than half of them would have drowned not having the hovercraft as a safe rescue tool."

WOPR, a national water rescue organization in Poland: “Regardless of the weather, our hovercraft can fly over water, ice, mud, sand, grass or wetlands – allowing us to get to those places you can’t reach either by boat or by foot. This machine can save people under the most difficult conditions that prevent the use of a helicopter.”

Council Bluffs Fire Department, Iowa: "Our hovercraft can handle some of the most dangerous rescues that would otherwise be out of reach. It's the only vehicle able to operate on any surface; you can get it anywhere that basically nothing else can get to. With it, we're not sending first responders out into bad water or ice. We can go over it all with the hovercraft, grab the victim and bring them back."

If you missed Neoteric at #FDIC2022, be sure to visit us next year at #FDIC2023.

 And in the meantime …

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Only one more day to see a Neoteric Rescue Hovercraft in flight at #FDIC2022!

Today is the next-to-the-last day of the FDIC. And it was a busy day at Neoteric Hovercraft’s FDIC Outdoor Booth 19403 – where every half hour, attendees watched a rescue hovercraft take flight …

Coincidentally, one FDIC attendee who visited our booth today is closely connected to Neoteric's history. Neoteric Founder/President Chris Fitzgerald (right) was a founder of the Hoverclub of America in 1974 … and visitor Michael (left) is the son of another founder of the Hoverclub. Michael has spent his life in the fire service and is now a Fire Chief.

This is just one association between fire departments and Neoteric Rescue Hovercraft. Fire Chief Michael explains why there should be closer connections between firefighters and hovercraft … 

As Maritime Reporter and Marine News reported in 2014: "Hovercraft have a growing role to play in search and rescue, commercial and military operations around the world. Hovercraft can be a practical proposition for operations in areas inaccessible to other vehicles including frozen water, mud flats, intertidal areas, shallow rivers and flooded inland areas. Perceived to be environmentally sound, as they don’t exhaust into the water, create no wash and do not disturb the sea bed, they are also economical and do not endanger marine animals as there is no propeller in the water."

There are so many more reasons why hovercraft are necessary for safe and successful search and rescue operations. In brief,  hovercraft do not suffer from outboard motor or propeller damage – which are big problems with Jon Boats, inflatables and anything that has a prop under the boat. Beneath a hovercraft there is nothing but a 9-inch deep, soft cushion of air. Because they travel above the surface on a cushion of air, hovercraft fly over obstacles rather than colliding with them. A hovercraft can fly over a bird nest full of eggs – or even a human being – without doing any harm!

 And, unlike boats, the Neoteric Hovercraft hull is filled with US Coast Guard-approved closed-cell foam, which prevents sinking.

Over the Neoteric's 62 years of existence, our hovercraft have proven to be quite possibly the safest rescue vehicle ever built. And #FDIC attendees, you have only one more day to visit Neoteric Hovercraft's Outdoor Booth 19403 to see why this is so!

See Fire Rescue Agencies worldwide that use Neoteric Hovercraft ...

See how safety can be sexy with Neoteric Rescue Hovercraft at FDIC International!

Today at the FDIC, David Page, Director of the Prehospital Care Research Forum at UCLA, addressed attendees on “Bringing Light to the Dark.” His speech focused on three tenets: safety, service and smiles.

Page said, “Safety first, of course … So I’m on a quest to make safety less fuddy duddy and more sexy! If safety were sexy, I think more of us would think of it - in fact, some of my partners would not stop thinking of it … If safety were sexy, more of us might practice it, study it, maybe even get good at it.”

This made us recall the time a woman and her husband took their first flight on a Neoteric Hovercraft, and afterward (to the dismay of her husband!), her first comment was “That was better than sex!”

Now let’s check out what happened today at Neoteric’s FDIC Outdoor Booth 19403 …

Here, attendees see how Neoteric’s patented reverse thrust system works. It allows our rescue hovercraft to brake, back up, fly backward and otherwise outmaneuver every other hovercraft on the market. Reverse thrust is essential for hovering on ice and swift water ...

Here are a few more photos of the activities today as first responders from throughout the world learned directly from Neoteric Founder/President Chris Fitzgerald ... 

Be sure to stop by Neoteric's FDIC Outdoor Booth 19403 tomorrow to see a rescue hovercraft in flight ... and see for yourself how safety can be sexy!

Neoteric Rescue Hovercraft set to fly at FDIC International

Neoteric is ready to go! Are you ready to join us tomorrow at FDIC Outdoor Booth 19403 to see the most versatile rescue apparatus available? Come watch a Neoteric Rescue Hovercraft in action and see why it’s the safest, quickest way to rescue water, swift water, ice, mud and flood victims.

Here are three Neoteric Hovercraft leaving our manufacturing facility this morning in Terre Haute, Indiana on their way to the 2022 FDIC International in Indianapolis …

And here’s a closer look at the newest Neoteric model, the Hovertrek II, powered exclusively by the Briggs & Stratton Vanguard BIG BLOCK 40.0 Gross HP EFI marine engine. The new engine delivers significant fuel savings, higher horsepower and less noise and vibration, without adding extra weight. You can be one of the first to closely examine the new Neoteric Hovertrek II tomorrow through Saturday at the FDIC …

You’ll also have a chance to meet some fire departments who rely on Neoteric Rescue Hovercraft. On Thursday, firefighters from Michigan’s North Muskegon Fire Department will join us. North Muskegon has relied on Neoteric Hovercraft for nearly four decades, and says “Our hovercraft have saved more lives that all our fire engines combined. Since 1985, more than 255 people have been rescued from Muskegon area lakes using the hovercraft. More than half of them would have drowned not having the hovercraft as a safe rescue tool."

North Muskegon Fire Department's Neoteric Hovercraft

Then on Saturday, come meet firefighters from Indiana’s Brownstown Fire Department. Here, the department shows how easily their Neoteric Hovercraft flies from water to land …

And here we are this evening at our FDIC Outdoor Booth 19403, ready to welcome you tomorrow and answer all your questions about rescue hovercraft …

In his inspiring speech today at the FDIC International Opening Ceremony, FDIC Education Director Bobby Halton said, “We are living in very serious times; some say we are going through hard times. Amid these hard times, there is a robust and spirited tactical debate happening in the fire service. It surrounds the needs of victims, their rescue, firefighter safety, and operations.”

 We hope you’ll visit us at the FDIC to see that this is exactly what Neoteric Hovercraft are all about: increasing firefighter and victim safety and improving rescue operations.

Learn more about Neoteric Rescue Hovercraft ...