Courtesy photo / Drone814 will test its fleet in June before going live in the field in July and August.

JOHNSTOWN — Test flights for the Drone814 project, an emergency lifesaving through multimodal mobility initiative, will begin in June throughout the city of Johnstown and parts of surrounding municipalities.

The project will use drone technology to improve emergency response performances and deliver critical supplies like AEDs, EpiPens and Narcan to people in need within minutes, according to a press release.

The initiative officially launched April 9 when project leaders, including Aerium Chairman Larry Nulton, presented at a Johnstown City Council meeting. Aerium recently joined Drone814 and other public and private partners to roll out the program in Cambria County.

In the release, Nulton said Aerium is proud to be a strategic partner in the project.

“This initiative doesn’t just push the boundaries of what’s possible in emergency response — it opens new doors for our local workforce and sets the tone for how technology and community impact can go hand-in-hand,” Nulton said.

Planned service areas for the project’s first phase include the Oakhurst region of Johnstown and parts of Brownstown, East Conemaugh, Dale, Ferndale, Southmont and Westmont boroughs.

According to ATA Aviation Managing Director John Eberhardt, the program will eventually expand to other areas of the county and could potentially expand to neighboring counties — Blair, Indiana and Somerset — as early as this fall, if funding becomes available for a second phase.

An open house for people to look at the drones and ask questions about the program will be held at 6 p.m. May 13

and 14 at the Frank J. Pasquerilla Conference Center in Johnstown, Eberhardt said, adding a demonstration flight will be held May 30.

People will then see the drones flying from June 2-8 during test flights. During that time, the drones won’t actually be delivering anything to anybody, Eberhardt said, noting the test flights are to ensure the equipment works properly and that no mistakes are made when the flights go live in July.

Eberhardt said the live flights will be coordinated with the Cambria County Emergency Services Department from July 14-25 and from Aug. 11-22.

If people within the service area call the 911 dispatch center during those dates with a serviceable issue — heart attacks, allergic or diabetic shocks, drug overdoses or traumatic bleeding — a dispatcher will send a drone and an ambulance, Eberhardt said.

The drone will remain airborne as it lowers a cable and drops the box containing medical equipment, Eberhardt said, adding, “We don’t want the drones to land because they can get entangled and it’s just not a good idea.”

The box will have color-coded compartments based on what the issue is and will contain instructions on how to use the equipment, he said.

“It’s designed to be really simple to use,” Eberhardt said.

The drones will be equipped with airspace awareness sensors. They’ll be able to fly beyond a visual line of sight and can fly up to a five-mile radius of where they’ll be flown from at locations in Johnstown and Southmont, according to Eberhardt.

Eberhardt said the goal of the first phase is to learn how fast dispatchers can get medical supplies to the caller and how effective the supplies are — whether they can be used effectively and lead to better health outcomes.

“If we can reduce the number of days the victim spends in the hospital, we can save money and that helps us get the funding for stage two,” he said.

Matt Crocco, Aerium’s communications director, said the Drone814 program promises to create career opportunities for Pennsylvanians in the aerospace and aviation sectors.

“One of the big things that Aerium does is we work to create an environment to give students pathways of the future,” Crocco said. “This is definitely something that’s going to open up pathways for them in Pennsylvania.”