Air cab for patient transportation to go into service in 2029

The air cab developer ERC Systems from Ottobrunn near Munich presented an electrically powered aircraft on Wednesday that was specially designed for patient transportation. The eVTOL (electric Vertical Take-off and Landing Aircraft) is suitable for the secondary transportation of patients between hospitals and also for the initial treatment of injured persons, ERC announced.

The company, which was founded in 2020 and has 80 employees, initially presented a demonstrator called "Romeo", which is not yet airworthy, in the presence of Bavarian Health Minister Judith Gerlach (CSU). The first prototype is expected to take off at the end of 2024 and the aircraft will be ready for the market in 2029 under the name "Charlie". In the more distant future, autonomous flying organ transports are also conceivable for ERC.

ERC sees great potential for demand in Germany, but also in Europe and the USA as a whole. Every year, around 82 million acutely ill and injured people in Europe and the USA require immediate and rapid medical transportation. However, according to ERC, only around 1.5 million of these patients could be transported in the fastest way possible, namely by helicopter.

Echo, Romeo, Charlie

The company wants to supplement these transport capacities with its eVTOL. "Romeo" has the same specifications as "Charlie". The eVTOL has a tailgate of 1.4 m × 1.4 m. The load capacity is 450 kg and the range is around 190 km. The cabin volume of 5 m³ is also intended to enable emergency medical patient care during the flight. In 2023, the first demonstrator "Echo" took off with a length of 13 meters and a weight of around 2.7 tons. According to the ERC, it has completed a good 100 test days and flights.

ERC CEO David Löbl argues in favor of his aircraft that, given the increasing distances between medical facilities, rescue services are increasingly facing a dilemma: "Conventional ambulances are often too slow, but fast helicopter flights are associated with high costs and noise." The ERC-eVTOLs could offer a complementary solution. They are three times faster than ambulances and three times cheaper than a helicopter.

Before ERC launches its air ambulance on the market, the health region plus Unterallgäu-Memmingen and DRF Luftrettung are to test it in practice. There are already letters of intent for this, ERC announced. The first test flights are to take place in 2025, according to the signing of the letters of intent in April of this year. In order to provide the eVTOLs with the best possible medical equipment, ERC is cooperating with the Klinikum rechts der Isar at the Technical University of Munich. Prof. Dr. Peter Biberthaler, Head of the Polyclinic for Trauma Surgery there, emphasized that inter-hospital transports are increasing considerably, as medical specialization is also on the rise.

Full scale right from the start

According to ERC, it has been developing full-scale and full-mass demonstrators for special applications right from the start. The decisive factor here is the vertical lift, i.e. that the aircraft can actually take off and hover in a controlled manner. Once this is ensured, the transfer to horizontal flight is comparatively simple. These demonstrators are the same size and have the same mass as the end product. Certification is just as complex as for other aircraft and will probably take five years, says ERC.

"Many eVTOL start-ups often begin with the development of small aircraft in order to be able to present the first prototypes quickly," ERC went on to explain. However, it is crucial to use representative weights and sizes, especially for propulsion and battery technologies as well as flight control, as the physical challenges and the demands on the systems grow disproportionately with the size.

(anw)