The measure of: Wingcopter 198

Air medical service provider Air Methods has partnered with German drone manufacturer Wingcopter to create a drone-based network that can fly medical supplies across the USA.

The new network, dubbed Spright, will help ease shortages of blood products, medicines, diagnostics, or small medical devices, Air Methods says. It will achieve this by deploying fleets of Wingcopter’s new flagship delivery drone, the Wingcopter 198.

With the proven technology and production capacity to create a nationwide network built around Air Methods’ existing infrastructure of over 300 bases, Wingcopter says Spright can serve hundreds of hospitals across 48 states in predominantly rural areas.

An initial pilot project using Wingcopter’s delivery drones will launch this year and will provide a proof of concept of how this venture can provide needed relief and certainty for medical resources in rural America, according to Air Methods.

The Wingcopter 198 is an autonomous eVTOL delivery drone that enables reliable, fast, and bi-directional medical deliveries, according to its developers. The company’s tilt-rotor technology allows for vertical take-off and landing, while also enabling efficient forward flight over long ranges, thus removing the need for additional infrastructure.

Vital statistics

Wingspan: 1.98m

Length from front to tail: 1.52m

Maximum cruise speed: 144km/h

Range without payload: 110km

Range with 5kg payload: 75km

Average wind resistance :15m/s 

Wind resistance (gusts): 20m/s

Altitude (ceiling): 5,000m

Total payload: 6kg, max 5kg with triple drop

Maximum flight time in multicopter mode: 15 min, 90 mins in fixed-wing mode

Mass when empty, incl. Triple Drop delivery System: 10kg

Mass with batteries: 20kg

Max take-off weight: 25kg

Auto-landing accuracy: 3m

Operating temperature: 0-45°C

Rotors for redundancy during multicopter flight: 8x, of which tiltable for redundancy during fixed-wing flight, 4x

Li-Ion battery: 2x, 814Wh each

Default cruise speed: 100km/h