Aerotrem Technologies Urban Rescue Mark IV (concept design)

(Image credit: Aerotrem Technologies)

Urban Rescue Mark IV (concept design)
Team Tremblay (GoAERO team name)
Aerotrem Technologies Inc.
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
www.aerotrem.ca

Founded in 2026 by Zachary Tremblay, Aerotrem Technologies is in the business of designing and manufacturing urban rescue passenger electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for the nascent advanced air mobility (AAM) industry. Tremblay has a Bachelor of Engineering and Mechanical Engineering degrees from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Tremblay's company is located in Montreal as well. In 2024, Tremblay entered the GoAERO prize competition while he was a mechanical engineering undergraduate at McGill University which is also in located in Montreal.

Tremblay has a passion for engineering and flying and has designed and manufactured drones since 2020. He started a team called McGill Drones at McGill University with the purpose of building and flying drones. From the ground up, he designed and built the largest unmanned aircraft vehicle (UAV) in the history of McGill University during the years 2022-2023. Tremblay won third place in the Design-Build-Vertical Flight Competition of the 2023 competition sponsored by the Vertical Flight Society. In 2024, he was a Lichten Award Vertical Flight Society Americas Regional winner for a research paper on test stands for tailsitters. During 2023-2024 his team grew from 20 to over 100 people, raised over $30,000.00 in sponsorships and funding, invested in long-term performance and longevity of the team, presented a paper at the Aerial Evolution Association of Canada 2024 conference and much more.

When Tremblay learned about the GoAERO prize competition, he knew he was ready to go one step further and make an emergency rescue passenger eVTOL aircraft. In fact, Tremblay was so inspired by the GoAERO competition (2024-2027) that he founded his own company to continue the mission of the contest in the real world. While Team Tremblay entered the GoAERO competition with its emergency response eVTOL aircraft, the team was not selected as a Stage 1 or Stage 2 prize winner. However, his competition project demonstrated the team's approach to emergency response eVTOL aircraft design.

Urban Rescue Mark IV passenger eVTOL aircraft (concept design)
The Urban Rescue Mark IV is an autonomous passenger eVTOL aircraft. The team is concerned that their emergency rescue aircraft could, without notice, operate in a GPS denied scenario. In the event this happens, the team has planned for a robust, fail-safe avionics architecture allowing the aircraft to continue with GPS capability, no matter where the aircraft is in its mission. Quoting from the team, "To ensure deterministic reliability, the aircraft utilizes a physically segregated, dual-compute architecture."

The estimated cruise speed of the aircraft is 252 km/h (157 mph), has an expected range of 50 km (31 m) and has an anticipated flight time of 90 minutes. The aircraft has obstacle avoidance technology and has technology allowing the aircraft to quickly adapt and recover from unexpected and unpredictable wind conditions. The aircraft has four propellers, four electric motors and is powered by swappable Lithium-Polymer battery packs. Two propellers rotate on the tilt-wings and the two rear propellers are stationary. The aircraft has one high main wing with winglets and each wing can tilt independently. The aircraft has one small V tail.

The empty weight of the aircraft is intended to be 197 kg (434 lb), with a planned maximum payload weight of 116 kg (256 lb) and has a predicted maximum takeoff weight of 313 kg (690 lb). The fuselage is made from carbon fiber composite to give the aircraft a high strength to low weight ratio. The rescue drone has fixed quadricycle shock absorbing strut landing gear. The custom landing gear can automatically extend or retract based on uneven or sloping terrain. The landing gear has also been designed for the aircraft to safely land on sand, a flooded area or in rough terrain.

About the GoAERO Prize Competition
The GoAERO Prize, sponsored by Boeing, is a three year competition (2024-2027) offering over $2 million USD in prizes that challenges engineers worldwide to create portable, versatile and autonomy-enabled Emergency Response Aircraft that address not only everyday medical emergencies but also to be used in natural disasters, humanitarian emergencies and climate crises worldwide. Each team designs and builds autonomous Emergency Response aircraft capable of delivering a first responder, medical equipment and supplies and ultimately evacuating victims in need to a rescue ambulance or hospital.

More than 150 teams from around the globe are competing for the GoAero prizes. The GoFly and GoAERO prizes were developed by Boeing, NASA and other organizations to help the nascent advanced air mobility (AAM) industry move forward.

Specifications:

• Aircraft type: Emergency rescue passenger eVTOL (concept design)
• Piloting: Autonomous piloting
• Capacity: 1 person
• Cruise speed: 252 km/h (157 mph)
• Range: 50 km (31 m)
• Flight time: 90 minutes
• Empty weight: 197 kg (434 lb)
• Maximum payload weight: 116 kg (256 lb)
• Maximum takeoff weight: 313 kg (690 lb)
• Propellers: 4 propellers (2 tilt-wing propellers, 2 VTOL-only propellers)
• Electric motors: 4 electric motors
• Power source: Swappable Lithium-Polymer battery packs
• Fuselage: Carbon fiber composite
• Cabin: Canopy over the cockpit
• Wings: 1 high main tilt-wing with winglets
• Tail: 1 small V tail
• Landing gear: Fixed quadricycle shock absorbing strut landing gear.
• Safety features: Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP) uses multiple propellers or electric ducted fans, each powered by electric motors, to increase safety through redundancy. If one or more components fail, the remaining ones can still ensure a safe landing. There are also redundancies of critical components in the sub-systems of the aircraft providing safety through redundancy. Having multiple redundant systems on any aircraft decreases having any single point of failure.

Related Aircraft:

• Aerotrem Technologies Urban Rescue Mark I (concept design). The Mark II is located here.
• Aerotrem Technologies Urban Rescue Mark III (concept design)

Resources:

• Aerotrem website
• McGill Drones and Vertical Flight Society website
• Zachary Tremblay LinkedIn
• Video: Vertical Flight Society (VFS) 3rd Annual Design Build Vertical Flight (DBVF) Student Competition, SURVICE Engineering, Aug. 31, 2023
• Article: Meet the Teams: Team Tremblay, GoAERO, Nov. 6, 2024