Pivotal’s eVTOL Aircraft “Gains Warm Response from California Fire Agencies in Multi-Agency Demonstration Series”

Piv­otal an eVTOL air­craft devel­op­er, recent­ly com­plet­ed a trio of pub­lic safe­ty demon­stra­tion events across Cal­i­for­nia, part­ner­ing with San Bernardi­no Coun­ty Fire Depart­ment, South­ern Marin Fire Dis­trict (SMFD) and Cosumnes Fire Depart­ment, reports a press release. 

Each demo show­cased the poten­tial of Pivotal’s sin­gle-seat air­craft to dra­mat­i­cal­ly improve emer­gency response capa­bil­i­ties, espe­cial­ly in loca­tions where time, ter­rain and traf­fic can mean the dif­fer­ence between life and death.

The release explains, “The demon­stra­tions includ­ed tech­ni­cal brief­in­gs, onsite pre­ci­sion crewed flights, and inter­ac­tive sim­u­la­tion ses­sions that allowed atten­dees to eval­u­ate the aircraft’s han­dling, safe­ty fea­tures, and oper­a­tional fit. Fire and EMS chiefs, dis­patch­ers, and field per­son­nel explored flight logis­tics, dis­patch inte­gra­tion, and use cas­es rang­ing from ambu­lance deserts to dis­as­ter response—highlighting the aircraft’s poten­tial to close crit­i­cal gaps in emer­gency access.

Ken Karklin, CEO of Piv­otal, com­ment­ed, “Pub­lic Safe­ty agen­cies need tools that help them respond faster, smarter, and with greater reach. Our air­craft offers a cost-effec­tive, rapid­ly deploy­able solu­tion that can extend the

The mes­sage is loud and clear. “No run­way? No prob­lem,” say the San Bernardi­no Coun­ty Fire Depart­ment (SBCFD).

SMFD Per­son­nel Enjoy­ing a Piv­otal Inter­ac­tion Sim­u­la­tor

Shawn Mil­l­er­ick of SBCFD, enthused, “Pivotal’s air­craft enables para­medics to reach patients faster—especially in cas­es where min­utes mean lives, such as car­diac arrest, ana­phy­lax­is or trau­ma from acci­dents or dis­as­ters.”

He con­tin­ued, “The abil­i­ty to rapid­ly deploy with min­i­mal infra­struc­ture opens the door to faster, more flex­i­ble respons­es in com­plex ter­rain. And that has real impli­ca­tions for sav­ing lives.”

At Hauke Park in Mill Val­ley, South­ern Marin Fire Dis­trict host­ed pub­lic safe­ty offi­cials and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers for a live demon­stra­tion of Pivotal’s eVTOL air­craft.

Chris Tubbs, an SMFD Fire Chief Chris Tubbs, remarked, “eVTOL rep­re­sent a trans­for­ma­tion­al shift in how we think about emer­gency response. They have the poten­tial to take fire, EMS and res­cue per­son­nel into places we once believed were only acces­si­ble by heavy-lift heli­copters.”

In Elk Grove, at the William Per­ry Shultz Train­ing Cen­ter, Piv­otal col­lab­o­rat­ed with Cosumnes Fire Depart­ment (CFD) on a sce­nario-dri­ven demon­stra­tion tai­lored to EMS response.

Dan Quig­gle, Deputy Fire Chief of CFD, added, “What we wit­nessed wasn’t just a flight demo, it was a glimpse into a future.  This tech­nol­o­gy isn’t replac­ing fire trucks or ambu­lances, it’s adding a new lay­er of fast, flex­i­ble aer­i­al response.”

PODCAST: Ken Karklin of Piv­otal dis­cuss­es the impact of its Helix air­craft and bring­ing per­son­al avi­a­tion to life

Piv­otal air­craft are:-

: Sin­gle-seat, designed for medics to act as both pilot and respon­der.

: Qui­et, elec­tric and mod­u­lar, with wings that detach for easy trail­er trans­port.

: Capa­ble of land­ing in tight spaces, rur­al clear­ings, or dis­as­ter zones.

By deploy­ing the air­craft before or along­side ambu­lances, agen­cies can reduce time to first con­tact, espe­cial­ly in high-vol­ume or hard-to-reach ser­vice areas. At present, Piv­otal is active­ly seek­ing part­ners for tri­al pro­grams. These cov­er:-

: High 911 call vol­umes.

: Urban-rur­al inter­faces.

: Chal­leng­ing ter­rain.

: Tech-for­ward EMS agen­cies.

For more infor­ma­tion

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(Images: Piv­otal Aero)

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