GoAERO Offers $2 Million in Prizes for Self-Flying Rescue Aircraft

Imagine being able to dispatch a compact self-flying aircraft to perform EMS and other rescue missions. Right now that’s science fiction, but if GoAERO (Aerial Emergency Response Operations) succeeds in its mission, it could be science fact in the not-so-distant future. That’s because the GoAERO Prize competition is offering development teams a total of $2 million in prizes over three years to develop the world's first compact, autonomy-enabled rescue aircraft. These aircraft are intended to revolutionize disaster response by enabling teams to reach people faster and more effectively.

“GoAERO and our partners Boeing, NASA, RTX, Honeywell, and a myriad of organizations around the world have come together to mount this global competition to create emergency response flyers,” explained GoAERO CEO Gwen Lighter. “Helicopters are great emergency response tools except that they are expensive to procure and operate, require pilots, and have difficulty going in and out of tight spaces. Delivery drones are inexpensive and easy to operate even in tight spaces but can only carry small payloads. What we're asking teams to do is create emergency response aircraft that are in the middle of the spectrum between helicopters and delivery drones.”

Having access to compact, self-flying aircraft would be a boon to EMS agencies, particularly smaller agencies operating in rural and remote areas with a lot of ground to cover and not enough vehicles and personnel to cover it quickly. GoAERO hopes to give first responders what they need in this regard.

“We spent close to a year speaking with hundreds of first responders and aviation experts, really trying to triangulate what is needed and to write our technical rules such that whatever is produced during the competition will be useful and will be lifesaving after the competition,” Lighter said.

Developing a practical self-flying aircraft is no easy task. This is why the GoAERO Prize competition is divided into three stages. The first stage is focused on designing the aircraft, which entrants can compete in by submitting their digital proposals. The second stage requires them to build a working prototype, to prove that their design actually works. And then the final stage is where things get really serious and where most of the $2 million in prize money is up for grabs. This is the “Final Fly-Off,” which will take place in the first three months of 2027.

According to the GoAERO rules, the final Fly-Off will require the competitors’ self-flying aircraft to fly three separate scored missions, with manikins being carried as stand-ins for human occupants. These three missions are meant to test how well each aircraft will perform in situations such as:

• Retrieving an injured person from under a forest canopy;
• Dropping off/picking up a firefighter on a burning hillside;
• Retrieving a drowning victim at the beach;
• Flying a first responder through in a dense urban environment full of buildings, signs, and wires;
• Delivering water and rations to communities cut off by natural disaster;
• Evacuating flood victims;
• Dousing a nascent wildfire;
• Rescuing someone who has fallen through the ice on a frozen lake; and
• Doing all of this in difficult conditions such as bad weather, chaotic air traffic and obstacles, and unknown terrain.

Clearly, the scope of the GoAERO prize is daunting, but the benefits of such aircraft being successfully created are mind-boggling.

“In a perfect world, after the competition, we would like to see these lifesaving flyers in every municipality, in every firehouse and police station such that the aircraft is in a trailer that can be transported by road vehicle up to wherever it needs to be,” said Lighter. “When the car can't go any further, the flyer can take off vertically and either bring a first responder to someone in need, or rescue someone who needs help, or bring in needed goods or supplies to a specific area or person.”

Stage 2 registration is now open, and teams did not have to participate in Stage 1 to join the competition.