Vital Wings
VitalWing is a fixed-wing tailsitter VTOL drone designed for emergency antivenom delivery to remote mountainous clinics. It targets a ~60 km service radius in about one hour while maintaining a 2–8°C cold chain for 80+ minutes, with a single-trip operating cost below ¥50.
VitalWing combines runway-free VTOL with efficient fixed-wing cruise. It uses an optimized PP-board insulated payload bay to keep antivenom between 2–8°C, and a dual-parameter transition controller (airspeed + pitch-angle feedback via PID) to achieve reliable VTOL ↔ cruise transitions in turbulent terrain.
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Snakebite envenoming is a time-critical emergency. Globally, there are ~5.4 million snakebites each year, causing 63,400+ deaths and around 400,000 permanent disabilities. In remote regions, victims often cannot access antivenom within the “golden 3-hour” window due to poor infrastructure, complex terrain, and long travel times.
Target context: remote communities where road speed can be extremely low and time-to-treatment is unpredictable.
VitalWing is a fixed-wing tailsitter VTOL drone built for emergency antivenom delivery. It takes off and lands vertically in confined areas, then transitions into efficient fixed-wing cruise for long-range, high-speed flight — while maintaining cold-chain requirements (2–8°C) using passive insulation.
VitalWing’s key innovation is its high-reliability transition control. Instead of relying mainly on accelerometer signals, we integrate real-time airspeed sensing with pitch-angle feedback through a custom-tuned PID controller. This dual-parameter approach improves transition robustness in turbulent mountain winds and helps achieve >95% transition success.
An optimized PP-board insulation payload bay maintains 2–8°C temperature stability for 80+ minutes, reducing weight and power draw, and making emergency delivery more dependable in the field.
Advantage compounds through flight logs, thermal tests, and deployment feedback.
We validate performance with mission-level metrics tied to emergency delivery: delivery time, temperature stability, autonomous transition success, navigation accuracy, and real-world reliability in wind.
Validation focuses on stability (wind & transition), cold-chain integrity, and repeatable autonomous operations.
The system is designed around a compact, manufacturable airframe with scalable performance and field-maintainable construction.
Priority: speed (golden window), reliability in complex terrain, and cost-effectiveness per mission.
Focus regions include high-risk provinces in southern China (e.g., Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan), serving a large rural population and a substantial annual emergency antivenom demand. The estimated annual emergency transportation service market in China exceeds ¥3B.
The model combines upfront deployment (hardware) with ongoing operational revenue (missions), supporting sustainable operations.
By enabling reliable antivenom delivery within the golden 3-hour window, VitalWing can reduce preventable deaths, lower disability risk, and strengthen rural healthcare resilience through scalable aerial logistics.
Formed in early 2024, our team came together after learning about a tragic case where a child in Nigeria died in a clinic while waiting for antivenom delivery—highlighting a critical last-mile medical logistics gap. This shared motivation pushed us to apply our engineering and product skills to a tangible, life-saving solution.
Core roles cover airframe/aerodynamics, mechanical/robotics execution, and product/market deployment.
Experienced in CAD airfoil modeling and airframe design. Leads aerodynamic optimization, structural layout, and prototype iteration to achieve high-efficiency cruise and stable VTOL behavior.
Focus: airfoil/CAD modeling · airframe design · performance iteration
Extensive experience in mechanical engineering, especially robotics. Drives mechanical integration, assembly reliability, and field-maintainable design to support repeatable outdoor testing and deployment.
Focus: robotics engineering · mechanical integration · reliability & maintainability
Experienced in marketing and product launch. Leads storytelling, outreach, and partnership-building with public health stakeholders, turning prototype validation into real-world pilot deployments.
Focus: positioning & narrative · outreach · pilots & go-to-market