Virginia Tech Rescue Bird (concept design)

(Image credit: Virginia Tech (GoAero team)

Rescue Bird (concept design)
Virginia Tech (GoAero team name)
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Blacksburgh, Virgina, USA
www.vt.edu

The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly called Virginia Tech, was founded in 1872 and its main campus is located in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. A team of students from Virginia Tech participated in the GoAERO Stage 1 competition with the team name of Virginia Tech. The team won the GoAERO Stage 1 award in 2025 and was one of 14 NASA University Innovation Award winners. The team's efforts will help the nascent advance air mobility (AAM) industry to gain traction. 

The Team Lead is John Filburn. Team Members included Ludwig Kempf, Ayden Miller, Krish Shah, Malhar Mahajan, Hannah Lexer, J.T. Jagoda, Alex Urbina, Morey Levy, Taner Alptekin, Henrick Zhen, Micaela Venyo, Alex Syran, Natalie Phillips, Domenic Martin, Maximilian Ilyev, Anders Silberberg, Malcolm Covington, Michael Zelnick, Eli Kaufman, Yaman Saran, Harisankar Murugavel, Richard Elinskas, Joseph Cahill, Sean Stuart, Thomas Leskoske, Jackson Mosley, Nathan Castonguay, Kal Legese, Nathan Zirkle, John Paul Kintz, Zaki Rizvi, Akrem Seid, Krishnateja Reddy, Carl Joseph Ramos, Brittany Linares, Yashili Thotakura.

Rescue Bird uncrewed emergency rescue passenger eVTOL multicopter (concept design)
The Rescue Bird is an uncrewed emergency rescue passenger eVTOL multicopter aircraft. The multicopter has the capability to carry multiple passengers, rescue crew and medical suppliers to unknown complex dangerous environments to deliver medical supplies to and rescue victims of natural disasters. In addition, the aircraft has been designed to meet FAA requirements.

This scalable aircraft has eight stacked propellers on arms above the fuselage, eight electric motors and is powered by battery packs. The multicopter has wrap around windows for excellent views for the passengers. The fuselage is made from carbon fiber composite to give the aircraft a high strength to low weight ratio. The aircraft has two fixed pontoon floats for landing gear, so the aircraft is always ready for ground or water landings.

The multicopter has be designed to be transported by a highway legal trailer or large enough pickup truck and able to fly to and back from a search zone or rescue zone.

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 and other organizations to help the nascent advanced air mobility (AAM) industry move forward.

Specifications:

• Aircraft type: Emergency rescue passenger electric eVTOL multicopter concep design
• Piloting: Autonomous uncrewed piloting with minimum input from ground crew (GoAero mission requirement)
• Capacity: Unknown. As this is a scalable aircraft, the capacity can possibly be from 2-6 people.
• Cruise speed: Unknown
• Flight time: 30 minutes (GoAero mission requirement)
• Range: 1.6 km (9.9 m) (GoAero mission requirement)
• Service ceiling 15 m (49 ft) (GoAero mission requirement)
• Minimum payload weight: 125 lb (57 kg)
• Maximum payload weight:  320 lb (145 kg)
• Propellers: 8 stacked propellers
• Electric motors: 8 electric motors
• Power source: Batteries
• Fuselage: Carbon fiber composite
• Windows: Panoramic wrap around windows allowing forward, left and right visibility for spectacular views with a solid roof above the passenger compartment
• Landing gear: 2 fixed pontoon floats
• Design feature: Has been designed be able to be transported by a highway legal trailer or large enough pickup truck and able to fly to and back from a search zone or rescue zone.
• 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. The aircraft has no moving surfaces or tilting parts when transitioning from vertical to forward flight and the reverse which increases safety by reducing complexity. 

Resources:

• Virginia Tech website
• Virginia Tech Facebook
• Virginia Tech Instagram
• Virginia Tech YouTube
• Article: GoAERO Launches $2M+ VTOL Challenge, Electric VTOL News, Feb. 12, 2024
• Article: Meet the Teams: Virginia Tech, GoAERO, Oct. 2, 2024
• Article: Stage 1 Winners, GoAERO, Feb. 2025
• Article: Virgina Tech Rescue Bird, GoAERO, Feb. 2025
• Article: GoAERO Announces Eleven Stage 1 Winners, Aero News Network, Feb. 16, 2025
• Article: GoAERO Global Emergency Response Flyer Competition Announces $500,000 of Awards to Innovators Worldwide with Support from Boeing, NASA, RTX, and Honeywell, GoAERO, Feb. 18, 2025
• Article: GoAERO Awards $500,000 to Stage 1 Teams, Vertiflite Magazine, Mar/Apr 2025
• Article: Student team ranks high in international uncrewed aerial vehicle competition, Virgina Tech News, May 6, 2025
• Article: Meet the Teams: Virginia Tech, GoAERO, May 14, 2025
• Article: GoAERO Competition Promotes Creation of Automatic Lifesavers, Flying Magazine, Nov. 17, 2025