ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — America's first electric vertical take-off and landing facility is underway in Rock Island.
Created by a Davenport-based company, DIFCO Inc, Hughes Aerospace and Five Alpha L.L.C.O, the facility is named "The Corporal Jason G. Pautsch Vertiport."
"He's my older brother," said DIFCO CEO Jake Pautsch. "He was killed in action in Missoula, Iraq, on Good Friday, April 10, 2009."
The facility aims to serve all area hospitals by providing air ambulance services, using a solar-power facility and an electric battery-powered aircraft.
"It's renewably conscious as we say. It's going to be producing just under one megawatt of power. Our plan is, until we have a sufficient demand for the power generation, we're going to supply MidAmerican Energy's power grid under a code GF the Illinois Commerce Commission tariffs," Pautsch said.
The goal of the facility is to provide safer and faster medical air transportation.
"Regular landing sites would be like your typical airports, which have traditional runways," Pautsch said. "The hardest thing for helicopters, especially aeromedical, is if you're operating out of a traditional airport you have to air taxi."
Another driver for the electric vertical air travel is organ and tissue donor transportation.
Pautsch expects the facility to be completed by the winter.