Port San Antonio company builds in-flight hospitals

Megan Stringer

The inside of an air medical unit attached to an airplane, a health care worker in blue scrubs and a mask adjusts a wall-mounted device as a patient lies on a stretcher, surrounded by medical equipment. — An air medical unit from Knight Aerospace. Photo: Courtesy of Port San Antonio

A Port San Antonio company is manufacturing medical units that can be attached to planes to treat patients in the air.

Why it matters: That's a major shift from when someone had to be stabilized on the ground before they could be transported, Knight Aerospace CEO Bianca Rhodes tells Axios.

How it works: The unit rolls onto an aircraft and locks in, allowing the rooms to be added to most cargo, military and commercial planes.

Some units can even be used as operating rooms for surgeries.

Zoom in: The units can help with disaster recovery. If someone is injured in a hurricane and has to be moved to safety and treatment in another city, the air medical units can take them.

They can also be used for humanitarian assistance or during wars.
Knight's customers for the units are often foreign militaries. European countries are interested because of the Russia-Ukraine war.
The units aren't yet operating in the U.S.

Flashback: Knight began designing the medical units around 2015 during the Ebola virus outbreak. It delivered the first units in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

What they're saying: "We're not just hanging medical equipment on the walls," Rhodes says. "All the connections are exactly like you would find in a hospital."

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Port San Antonio company builds in-flight hospitals

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