High-Speed VTOL Platform for Emergency Medical Services: Preliminary Conceptual Design of an AED Delivery System

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide, with patient survival strongly dependent on rapid defibrillation. Although unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have recently been investigated for Automated External Defibrillator (AED) delivery, the existing solutions are predominantly based on low-speed multirotor platforms with limited operational range and cruise velocity. This paper presents the conceptual development and preliminary analyses of a high-speed VTOL tailsitter UAV intended for rapid AED delivery missions. The proposed flying-wing platform combines vertical take-off and landing capability, hover flight during payload deployment, and cruise flight at 160 km/h. The work includes initial design assumptions, mission profile definition, and preliminary propulsion-related analyses forming part of a broader UAV development project conducted at Wrocław University of Science and Technology. The presented study addresses the technological gap in high-speed medical UAV platforms capable of combining efficient forward flight with precise hover capability for emergency-response applications.