Autonomous search & rescue aircraft

Find them faster.

Winter Flight Rescue builds autonomous hexacopters that search mountain terrain by thermal signature and lower emergency supplies to survivors — without needing any pilot.

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● Built for wilderness SAR, race directors & medical cover for events Payload winch delivery Sensors LWIR thermal + optical Roots Sierra Nevada, CA

The problem

The clock starts at the trailhead.

Wilderness rescues are lost in the gap between the call and boots on the ground. Terrain slows teams to a walking pace. Night and weather ground helicopters. Cold does not wait.

Winter is built for that gap: launch from the staging area in minutes, sweep terrain no team can cover on foot, and put warmth, communication, and medical supplies in a survivor's hands the moment they're found.

Terrain

Ground teams move at hiking speed through the same canyons, cliff bands, and river corridors that got someone lost.

Aircraft

Crewed helicopters are scarce, expensive to fly, and frequently grounded by the exact conditions that cause emergencies.

Exposure

In a cardiac arrest, the golden minutes are spent before ground help is even close. This drone can fix that.

How it works

Launch. Search. Deliver.

01 — Launch

Deploy from anywhere

Dispatch can automatically launch it from a trailhead, fire road, or incident command post in minutes.

02 — Search

Search by heat

A dual thermal + optical gimbal flies autonomous grid patterns while the onboard machine-learning database identifies human heat sources in real time. Everything runs on the aircraft — it needs no connection to the outside world.

03 — Deliver

Deliver on the spot

A precision winch lowers a supply pod — warmth, comms, water, and minutes-critical medicine — directly to the survivor, then holds overwatch until teams arrive.

Payloads

Medicine that can't wait.

Some emergencies aren't complicated — they're just far away. The treatment already exists, sitting in an ambulance an hour from the patient. The pod closes that distance.

Anaphylaxis

Epinephrine

A sting or food reaction on a trail can close an airway in minutes. An epinephrine auto-injector flown to the scene buys the time an evacuation can't.

Diabetic emergency

Insulin

Stranded longer than planned, or separated from a pack, a diabetic emergency deep in terrain becomes a race. Insulin on a winch line reaches a patient who is still hours from the trailhead.

Cardiac arrest

AED

Survival from sudden cardiac arrest falls with every minute before defibrillation. An AED that arrives by air, ahead of the crew, puts a shock within reach when no responder could arrive in time.

Payload sets are configured with each customer's medical direction and protocols.

The aircraft

A rescuer with six rotors.

Airframe960 mm hexacopter
SensorsLWIR thermal + optical gimbal
DeliveryGeared precision winch
RedundancySix-rotor lift
AutonomyOnboard ML database · heat-source detection
SourcingDesigned for NDAA compliance
Target unit costUnder $10,000
OperationUntethered · no outside connection

Who it's for

Built with the people who respond.

Winter Flight Rescue is developed alongside working Sierra Nevada search-and-rescue professionals — designed for county budgets, volunteer teams, and real incident command. And wherever else minutes decide the outcome — a race course, a job site, a campus — the same aircraft responds.

Sheriff SAR units

Search coordination

Wide-area thermal sweeps at night and in terrain that would take teams hours to clear — with findings routed straight to incident command.

EMS & fire agencies

Supply delivery

Winch-lowered pods carry insulation, radios, water, and emergency medicine — epinephrine, insulin, an AED — to patients who can be reached by air long before they can be reached on foot.

Counties & land agencies

An asset you can own

A sub-$10k aircraft a county can actually buy, maintain, and fly — instead of waiting on regional helicopter availability.

Or buy it as a service

No aircraft to own. Just coverage overhead.

Anywhere an emergency moves faster than an ambulance, the same aircraft flies as a service — booked per event or kept on standby.

Races & mass events

Event coverage

Trail ultras, bike races, triathlons — any course that outruns the ambulance. We fly the event with thermal overwatch and AED and medication delivery across the field, booked per event.

Corporations & worksites

Standby response

Industrial sites, large campuses, and remote operations where the nearest ambulance is too many minutes out. A rapid-response aircraft on standby, as a service — for any organization that needs medical coverage.

As seen in CNN Newsource FOX40 Sacramento CBS13 Sacramento
Lev Weisswasser, founder of Winter Flight Rescue
Founder · Lev Weisswasser
  • Aerospace engineering, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
  • 6th place in the world, micro drone racing — Whooptopia World Championship 2024
  • Class V whitewater kayak guide on Sierra Nevada rivers
  • Aerospace manufacturing QA — mil-spec rotorcraft components

Why this exists

Built by a rescuer.

Winter Flight Rescue comes from years of guiding and responding in remote Sierra Nevada terrain. The people who go looking deserve better tools, and the people who are lost deserve to be found sooner.

"No one should die waiting to be found."

Work with us

Bring the search to your county.

We're partnering with SAR units, EMS agencies, counties, race organizers, and organizations that need medical response on standby — shaping the aircraft around real operations from day one.

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Agencies, press, and partners: reach out for pilot program details, media materials, or a technical briefing.