Genevia Grant & first proof of concept
At Florida State University, ArcherFRS is awarded the Genevia Grant for Technological Innovation. The grant funds the first proof-of-concept video and early prototypes.
How we plan to achieve this
Make adopting this capability as obvious as the solution itself.
The efficiencies of drone delivery are obvious — fast, over traffic and infrastructure, directly to the scene. What keeps that utility out of reach for everyday Fire-Rescue and EMS agencies is not the idea. It’s the complexity and burden of standing up a drone delivery operation: programs, pilots, software, maintenance, and regulatory load piled onto teams that already have enough.
We strive to remove that complexity and operational burden so incorporating the capability becomes as obvious as the solution itself — fully managed emergency delivery, not another program for the agency to run.
Who we are
The team behind the system.
A small team focused on one job: emergency medical logistics that Fire-Rescue and EMS can actually run — without standing up an aviation program.
Hover or tap a card for more
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Operations
Gordon Folkes
Founded ArcherFRS to put life-saving logistics on the 911 clock — leads company operations alongside the mission to decrease response times and save more lives.
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Operations
Kade Aley
Operations leadership — keeps fully managed emergency delivery running safely, reliably, and ready for agencies day to day.
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Sales & Partnerships
Ralph Kaiser
Spearheads sales and public-safety partnerships — bringing 911-integrated drone logistics to Fire-Rescue and EMS without adding program complexity.
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Software
Spencer Hehl
CTO — leads the technology behind dispatch-integrated emergency drone logistics, from platform architecture to the systems agencies click every day.
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Software
Nathan Harris
Software development and cybersecurity focus — building secure, reliable systems for 911-integrated operations.
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Software
Read OQuinn
Software development for the core platform — reliability and features that agencies depend on mission after mission.
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Flight Operations
Brett Graham
Remote Pilot in Command — flies live emergency delivery missions under ArcherFRS’s fully managed Flight Operations service.
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Flight Operations
Demetrios Martins
Remote Pilot in Command — flies live emergency delivery missions under ArcherFRS’s fully managed Flight Operations service.
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Flight Operations
Max Meyer
Remote Pilot in Command — flies live emergency delivery missions under ArcherFRS’s fully managed Flight Operations service.
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In the news
Partnerships and milestones in the field.
Selected coverage of ArcherFRS programs with agencies and hospital partners.
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TGH prepares first-in-the-nation whole blood drone delivery program
Partnership with Hillsborough County Fire Rescue and ArcherFRS — whole blood toward the scene in under three minutes on average.
Read on tgh.org
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TGH, Manatee County, and ArcherFRS introduce first-in-the-nation drone delivery program
Hospital-sponsored emergency response equipment delivery for eligible 911 callers in Manatee County.
Read on tgh.org
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FirstNet Innovator of the Quarter: Archer First Response Systems
How FirstNet connectivity powers emergency drone delivery of AEDs, Narcan, and other life-saving tools.
Read on firstnet.com
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ASTM F3322 certification for first-responder sUAS parachute recovery
Independent recovery path that supports flight over people for emergency delivery operations.
Read the certification story
How we got here
A decade building emergency delivery for 911.
From a Genevia grant at FSU to multi-county 911 operations and whole blood. Scroll sideways through the milestones — or skip past this beat.
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First system demonstrations
First system demonstration at TrailMark with Evergreen Lifestyles Management. Later that year: a second public demo in Brooksville, FL.
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Google Cloud Startup Program
Accepted into the Google Cloud Startup Program. Cloud infrastructure for the dispatch-integrated platform is built out for scale.
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U.S. aircraft — Freefly Alta X
Proactively excluded DJI aircraft from the system and shifted to Freefly’s U.S.-built Alta X for public-safety reliability and supply-chain standards.
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Manatee County COA submitted
Certificate of Authorization work for Manatee County is submitted — the long regulatory path toward Public Aircraft Operations under Part 91.
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Built into the 911 stack
Integrates with RapidDeploy Radius, then RapidSOS Portal — no extra integration layer for agencies already on those platforms.
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FAA legal fight — Saure to Fields
Requested an FAA legal interpretation on Public Aircraft Operations. Received the erroneous Saure Interpretation. Submitted a 30-page brief to the Administrator. One year to the day later, the Fields Interpretation vindicated the position and superseded Saure.
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Manatee County goes live — VLOS
With Manatee County and Tampa General Hospital, launches the first-in-the-nation 911-integrated emergency drone delivery program under visual line of sight.
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Manatee County BVLOS waiver
Manatee County is granted a BVLOS waiver — unlocking beyond-visual-line-of-sight emergency delivery and the path to wider coverage.
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35 square miles BVLOS
Phase Two expands coverage to 35 square miles under BVLOS (Sept 29, 2025), with hours extended toward seven-days-a-week service.
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Orange County Fire Rescue goes live
Orange County Fire Rescue goes live on ArcherFRS — expanding 911-integrated emergency drone logistics beyond the Manatee flagship.
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First hospital sponsor — whole blood
Secures the first hospital sponsor partner dedicated to whole blood operations — pairing clinical blood programs with 911 drone logistics.
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Hillsborough County whole blood training
Hillsborough County Fire Rescue begins training on ArcherFRS whole blood delivery operations — preparing crews and protocol for blood-on-drone missions.