NACDeC VI: The Design Challenge 2022- Air Ambulance

The National Aerospace Conceptual Design Challenge (NACDeC VI) is a year-long competition jointly organized by AeSI Design Division and AeSI Mumbai Branch, ARTPARK, IISc and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), India. It is open for B.E/B.Tech, M.E/M.Tech and Ph.D students across India. During the course of this challenge, students will develop an Autonomous & Advanced Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) vehicle for Advanced Air Mobility- and thus help solve one of the most impending challenges faced in our country pertaining to access to healthcare.

Medical emergencies including Road Traffic Injuries are one of the major leading causes of death in India. Almost 23% of all trauma is transportation-related, with 1,374 accidents and 400 deaths occurring every day on the roads. Emergency care, especially in rural and tribal areas, is particularly challenging owing to poor connectivity and road infrastructure.

In this challenge, participants would be required to design an air ambulance equipped with Air Emergency Medical Service (Air EMS) capabilities. The design of Air EMS can help move patients, organs, paramedics or even emergency equipment and supplies more rapidly than surface modes over long distances or congested areas.

This design competition is one of the many steps that we envision taking to make advanced air mobility for emergency healthcare a reality. Our aim is to develop an air ambulance that can fly within an operating range of 50-100 km, is operationally economical, has a low noise signature, and is certified with the highest airworthiness standards for use in healthcare emergencies, rescue missions and casualty evacuation. The air ambulance is planned to be equipped with state-of-the-art emergency care delivery systems for patient stabilization, resuscitation, monitoring and audio/video telecommunication with a healthcare specialist.