Project · Aerospace · ICAO · Imaginactive

Ambular.

An autonomous, all-electric eVTOL flying ambulance — built to reach a patient in the minutes that decide an emergency. A volunteer project championed by ICAO, grown from an Imaginactive concept by Charles Bombardier.

About the project

Saving critical minutes.

Ambular is an autonomous, all-electric eVTOL conceived as a flying ambulance: a vehicle that carries a paramedic to the scene and airlifts a patient out of places a ground ambulance or a helicopter cannot easily reach — gridlocked cities, disaster zones, hard terrain.

The idea began as an Imaginactive concept by Charles Bombardier in 2018 and grew, under the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), into an international volunteer effort — not a commercial product, but a shared project to learn what it actually takes to move an eVTOL from sketch to flying hardware. Martín Rico led the aircraft’s exterior and industrial design across its successive versions.

Driven by Yuri Fattah — Programme Manager of Multidisciplinary Priorities at ICAO — alongside Charles Bombardier of Imaginactive, the project relies on a global team of volunteer experts, academic institutions such as Concordia University and HKUST, and hardware partners to bring the concept to life.

Distributed electric propulsion carries the safety case: many small rotors and motors, so the failure of one still leaves a controllable, landable aircraft. The team studies four fronts in parallel — technical, medical, legal and social.

Film

The aircraft, in motion.

Two films: the concept in flight, and an emergency-response scenario from call to patient.

FILM · CONCEPT

In flight The Ambular concept in motion (press play).

FILM · RESPONSE

Emergency response From the call to the patient — the mission, end to end (press play).

Renders · in service

City, river, rooftop.

Ambular arriving at a hospital — **Arrival** Lifting to a hospital pad, livery and beacon reading against the glass.

Ambular flying over Montréal — **Over the river** Crossing the islands with the ICAO mark on the door.

Ambular over the Biosphère — **Above the park** Tracking past the Biosphère on an autumn run.

Urban air mobility traffic concept — **In traffic** One vehicle inside a managed urban-air-mobility picture.

Built · ICAO

From render to hardware.

To pressure-test the ideas, the team built. First a series of quarter-scale, flyable prototypes; then a full-scale 2.0 mockup, unveiled at ICAO headquarters in Montréal. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology ran wind-tunnel and CFD work on the airframe; Concordia’s Gina Cody School, China’s CASRI and EHang contributed engineering and hardware.

Full-scale Ambular mockups at ICAO — **Full scale** Two full-size bodies on display in the ICAO lobby.

Ambular unveiling at ICAO headquarters — **Unveiled** The cover comes off at ICAO headquarters, Montréal.

Quarter-scale Ambular prototypes — **Prototypes** Flyable quarter-scale bodies on the project blueprint.

PROTOTYPE · PROFILE

Three bodies Successive shapes lined up — the design evolving in the open.

Ambular stand and prototypes — **On the stand** The prototypes below the project’s own identity.

Evolution · 3.0

The next shape.

Each version folds back what the prototypes taught. The 3.0 study tightens the body and the rotor booms around what the testing revealed.

Ambular 3.0 over a city at dusk — **3.0** The newer body over the city at last light.

Ambular 3.0 over a city — **Daylight** Cleaner volumes, the same red-and-white identity.

Beyond · the platform

One platform, many missions.

The same airframe logic reaches past patient transport — autonomous medical-cargo delivery, a multimodal vision that hands patients between rail, sea and air, and immersive ICAO virtual experiences that let people walk the concept before it flies.

Ambular cargo delivery drone over a city — **Medical cargo** A delivery variant carrying supplies across downtown.

Ambular cargo drone at an emergency scene — **On scene** Hardware on the ground while help is given.

Ambular cargo drone over the skyline — **Across the skyline** Box aloft over the city — the wide view.

Ambular multimodal rail and sea concept — **Handover** Pods, rail and sea meeting one air leg.

Ambular pods at a station — **At the platform** A train of pods at the station under a violet sky.

Ambular ICAO virtual experience — **Virtual** An ICAO real-time experience — the concept, walkable.