Airbus Helicopters and the Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation (NAAF) are to develop CityAirbus NextGen future missions for medical services in Norway.
The partners, Airbus said, are to look into the "added value of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for a selection of medical services use cases across the country" and "to integrate the operational requirements right into the configuration of Airbus’ eVTOL".
Airbus and the foundation will come up with a "comprehensive road-map toward reducing emergency response time", with the aim of improving patient outcomes and "the overall performance of the Norwegian Emergency Medical Services system".
“Airbus’ aviation expertise across the board is a major asset to help us combine different aircraft for medical services. Complementarity is a key driver in this endeavour: helicopters remain essential to perform EMS missions, whilst eVTOLs can bring additional capabilities to support first responders, for instance by transporting medical specialists to accident scenes or organs from one medical site to another," said Hans-Morten Lossius, the foundation's secretary general.
“The Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation has always been at the forefront of medical innovation, most recently with dedicated research to integrate a CT scanner into a five-bladed H145 helicopter," said Balkiz Sarihan, head of urban air mobility at Airbus.
"We’re looking forward to working with the Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation as a strategic partner to further develop the exact missions where our eVTOL’s capabilities would contribute to protecting citizens and making sure they can access effective healthcare in Norway," Sarihan added.