This research paper involves the design and testing of a crewless aerial vehicle (UAV) specifically designed to rapidly deliver snake antivenin (AV) to remote areas with especially poor infrastructure. Delays in the delivery of AV to treat snakebite envenomation (SBE) due to poor road infrastructure and a lack of local medical centers often result in avoidable permanent disability or death, which creates a problem that must be fixed. The purpose of this study is to determine whether a fixed-wing Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) tailsitter UAV could maintain the cold-chain integrity of snake AV while achieving a flight range of over 60 kilometers under one hour. To do this, we designed a brand-new airframe with a cool-preserving payload holder and a GPS guided autonomous navigation system. We conducted multiple test flights while ensuring payload temperature, battery consumption, and positional accuracy. The prototype maintained a consistent internal temperature below 8ºC for over one hour in an ambient temperature of 30°C. The drone can also autonomously take off and land vertically, and automatically transition from VTOL to cruising mode with 90% accuracy. However, long-distance testing data is still lacking, and more testing is required to determine whether drones of this specification can meet their flight performance targets. We conclude that drone-based delivery of snake AV is feasible over at least 60 kilometers in all terrain. These findings suggest that investing in temperature-stable UAVs could significantly reduce snakebite mortality rates in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Future work will focus on long-distance and full-mission testing and on developing a system that allows medical staff or emergency services responders to easily provide a location for the snake AV to the drone operators.

Zihan Jin. Fixed Winged VTOL Tailsitter Drone for Snake Antivenin Delivery. International Journal of Frontiers in Engineering Technology (2026), Vol. 8, Issue 1: 65-73. https://doi.org/10.25236/IJFET.2026.080110.

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