Nevada county teen building rescue drone for extreme conditions

A Nevada County teen is spending his summer preparing for college and building something he hopes will one day save lives. 

Winter Flight Rescue is a drone that could be capable of rescuing people in remote areas.

"This is my workshop where Winter was born. I spend almost 40 hours a week down here designing," said Lev Weisswasser, from Nevada County.

Behind mom and dad's house, a shed has become a launchpad for the recent Nevada Union High School grad's big idea, which is starting to take flight. It's a new company, shaped by years of spending time outdoors and whitewater kayaking.

"Out here we run a very remote gorge and one of my friends got stuck, pinned in a rapid, where water was almost going over his face," said Weisswasser. "Had we had equipment or a drone there to help relieve pressure from above, it would've dramatically helped the situation."

His friend made it out safely. But experiences like that are what inspired him to create Winter Flight Rescue, or 'Winter.' It's a drone capable of navigating difficult terrain in remote areas with no service, maybe in the depths of a canyon, or maybe in the middle of a blizzard.

"Imagine the drone being four times bigger. It's going to fly over the person autonomously, find them using thermal sensing, and then drop whatever equipment they need to the person," said Weisswasser.

Whether that be a food and water package or an AED, the drone can find a person, deliver supplies, and communicate with them in real time.

Weisswasser is raising money for a prototype, but the coding is already there. He's built 263 drones, even winning 6th in the drone racing world championship, and he says this rescue drone will be his best one yet.

"Every week we're here on Earth something new is happening that's groundbreaking in technology at a rate of pace, in my opinion, we've never seen in humanity," he said. "We're designing it as we go, and I don't think six months ago this would've been able to work."

For Weisswasser, learning never stops. And as his knowledge grows, so does Winter.

"Any of those mountainous areas, you're going to get out of cell phone service very quickly," said Sergeant Dustin Moe with the Nevada County Sheriff's Office.

Moe is a search and rescue team lead with the Nevada County Sheriff's Office. Moe's team already uses drones, carrying out more than 100 missions a year. But he believes Weisswasser's vision could take that technology even further.

"It's awesome. I love seeing people pushing the boundaries, trying to come up with new ways to do things. That's the way we always better ourselves," said Moe. "What he's developing here, I think, is another step beyond that and would be a great asset."

For now, the work continues in the shed behind Weisswasser's parents' house.

"When I'll feel successful and when I'll feel like my company has actually done something good, is when I get my first letter in the mail from a wife, husband, child saying that my product made the difference between life and death for their loved one," said Weisswasser.

Because for him, every line of code is written with the hope of saving a life.

At the end of this month, Weisswasser says he'll be heading to San Francisco to pitch his company to Sam Altman at the Y Combinator startup school event.