Aerotrem Technologies Urban Rescue Mark I

(Image credit: Aerotrem Technologies)

Urban Rescue Mark I (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. Trembly 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 undergradate 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. Trembly 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.

GoAERO Team Tremblay Urban Rescue Mark I passenger eVTOL aircraft concept design
The Urban Rescue Mark 1 is a an autonomous emergency rescue passenger eVTOL delta wing tail sitter aircraft. Even though the competition was for aircraft to fly into natural disasters with unknown weather conditions, Zak prefers to focus his flyer on emergencies within urban cities.

The concept design has two electric ducted fans (EDFs) and two addition propellers on the edge of the delta wing. The delta wing has winglets. The aircraft has four electric motors and is powered by battery packs. The fuselage is made from carbon fiber composite to give the aircraft a high strength to low weight ratio. The aircraft is a tail sitter, with fixed quadricycle strut landing gear.

Urban Rescue Mark II subscale eVTOL prototype
Tremblay's student team McGill Vertical Flight Society participated in the 2023 Design-Build Vertical Flight Student Competition sponsored by the Vertical Flight Society. The team entered the Urban Rescue Mark II subscale eVTOL prototype aircraft for the competition. The competition had strict weight restrictions with a 9.07 kg (20 lb) maximum takeoff weight. The team proposed that designing a tailsitter would reduce the weight of the drone and improve performance by minimizing takeoff and landing times. 

The drone had autonomous piloting using a PixHawk Cube Orange autonomous flight controller. The drone has four electric propellers, four electric motors and is powered by 6S LiPo battery packs. The aircraft has a delta wing made from carbon fiber composite spars, expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam and was covered in a heat-sealed thin plastic to create a smooth wing profile. The drone did not carry any payload. The drone is a tailsitter that had quadricycle strut landing gear.

Much more work took place by the team to develop this drone than meets the eye. For example, the team had many tests such a landing gear structural testing, electronics and motor test stand testing and a tailsitter bench test. The team also had multiple simulations performed by the team and much more, to make the drone fly.

Urban Rescue Mark II specifications

• Aircraft type: Subscale eVTOL prototype
• Piloting: Autonomous
• Maximum takeoff weight: 9.03 kg (19.9 lb)
• Propellers: 4 propellers
• Electric motors: 4 electric motors
• Power source: 6S lithium-polymer (LiPo) battery packs
• Fuselage: Carbon fiber composite spars and expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam
• Wing: 1 Delta wing. The fuselage was covered in a heat-sealed thin plastic to create a smooth wing profile.
• Landing gear: Tail sitter with quadricycle strut landing gear (made from carbon fiber twill sheets)

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.

Urban Rescue Mark I Specifications:

• Aircraft type: Emergency rescue passenger eVTOL concept design
• Piloting: Autonomous piloting
• Capacity: 1 person
• Maximum take off weight: 9.07 kg (21 lb)
• Propellers: 2 electric ducted fans (EDFs) and 2 propellers
• Electric motors: 4 electric motors
• Power source: Batteries
• Fuselage: Carbon fiber composite
• Cabin: No windows
• Wings: 1 delta wing with winglets
• Landing gear: The aircraft is a tail sitter, with fixed quadricycle 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.

Resources:

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