Hyde County, North Carolina flew a new kind of Public Aircraft Operation this year... real aircraft answering real 911 calls, from April 15 through August 1, 2026. This is an open invitation to counties and agencies: come learn what the pilot proved, and how your county could go next.
Hyde County Emergency Services declared Public Aircraft Operations status and flew a four-month proof of concept, April 15 through August 1, 2026. Two PAO aircraft, N924LQ and N909HB, flew the pilot. The Academy trained the county's own responders across more than 300 sorties, and a county paramedic answered two live 911 calls by air before the pilot concluded. Operational control sat with the county throughout, with program-management support from the partner team.
What gets built here is what other counties can adopt. Hyde County is the proving ground; the model is designed to travel.
Advanced aviation, when it sits inside a real public-safety program, changes what's possible for time-critical response — without replacing what already works.
Cuts time on calls where minutes change outcomes — especially across rural geography, water, or weather-constrained terrain.
Extends the response footprint of existing EMS, sheriff, and emergency-management resources without standing up parallel programs.
Operating authority sits with the county under PAO. The county owns the mission, the assets, and the operational decisions.
Air, ground, and dispatch run as one program — coordinated assets, shared standards, one operational picture.
A county is the operator. Three program partners bring the aircraft, the operations, and the readiness. None of the four is the headline — the program is.
Holds PAO authority. Hosts the operating environment, anchors the Academy, and runs the county-level adoption model.
Public-safety readiness and equipment solutions. Real-world response training, simulation, and equipment loadouts.
PAO program development, operational control support, and the county operating model. A nonprofit Aviation Program Manager aligned with the public mission of the agencies it serves.
Aircraft platform, primary pilot training pathway, and maintenance support for the Academy's operating fleet.
The North Carolina branch runs the program on the ground — operations, training, and the relationships with the agencies that fly.
The Academy's vision extends to a category of future PAO advanced aircraft in all forms — electric aircraft, simplified-control rotorcraft, fly-by-wire helicopters, autonomous platforms, and retrofitted military-surplus airframes — chosen so a county can train operators from its existing public-safety workforce. Hyde County is where we prove the model. The model is built to travel.
If you're a county sheriff, EMS director, emergency-management lead, or county administrator evaluating advanced aviation for your community — we'd like to talk.
The Hyde County program is the proof of delivery. The next conversation is about what county-ready advanced aviation looks like where you are.
hello@akute.org