Competition For Future Of Emergency Response

The GoAERO Prize, a $2 million international competition to create Emergency Response Flyers, announced 11 Stage 1 winners and an additional 14 U.S.-based university teams that will receive GoAERO awards with NASA support to take their prototype vehicles through to the final fly-off, and in partnership with Boeing, RTX, and Honeywell.

The competition currently includes 198 teams from 85 countries worldwide creating their Emergency Response Flyers. It is designed to stimulate innovation for aircraft equipped with cutting-edge technology to conduct rescue and response missions in the aftermath of natural disasters, respond to medical emergencies, and other humanitarian crises. 

Following the fires in California, flooding in Valencia, and traffic congestion in areas globally, the technology has the potential to save many human lives.

The 11 Stage 1 winners are:

• A2 Cal (Berkeley, California, United States)
• CraneAero (Cranfield, United Kingdom)
• Elevate (Delft, Netherlands)
• Harmony (College Station, TX and Stillwater, OK, United States)
• HORYZN (Munich, Germany)
• LIFT + UT Austin / Texas Aerial Robotics (Austin, Texas, United States)
• MOSTAVIO (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
• MOYA AERO (Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil)
• Penn State University (State College, Pennsylvania, United States)
• Tartan Air Rescue (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States)
• Trek Aerospace (Folsom, California, United States)

The 14 awardees receiving funds from GoAERO and NASA’s University Innovation project are:

• Aggie First Response, North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University (Greensboro, NC)
• AirCRAFT Lab, Saint Louis University (St. Louis, MO)
• ASCEND Team, University of Texas, Austin (Austin, TX)
• ASDL, Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA)
• CPP.AERO Pegasus, California Polytechnic University, Pomona (Pomona, CA)
• GoAERO Purdue, Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN)
• Harmony, Texas A&M University & Oklahoma State University (College Station, TX and Stillwater, OK)
• PSU Swift, Penn State University (State College, Pennsylvania)
• Rescue Pack, North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC)
• Talon Lift, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Daytona Beach, FL)
• Tartan Air Rescue, Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
• The Sloopy Works, The Ohio State University (Columbus, OH)
• VSDDL, Auburn University (Leeds, AL)
• Virginia Tech, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Blacksburg, VA)

Gwen Lighter, GoAERO Founder and CEO said, “Every second counts in an emergency. There is a growing gap between what current aircraft can do and what first responders need. Emergency Response Flyers created through the GoAERO competition will give every first responder life-saving aerial capabilities to ensure dynamic response to modern-day emergencies,” said “Our Stage 1 winners are some of the brightest minds in the aviation and engineering industries, hailing from all over the world.”

FMI:  www.goaeroprize.com/