A High Priority Delivery Idea

Variant One

A concept for a two component high priority package delivery drone:

* Package to deliver: 100 kg. For example, anti-venom doses, poison antidotes, organs to transplant, key medical equipment, vaccines, samples of highly aggressive infectious diseases for analysis at top labs, satellite phones, emergency kits. 

* These would be for people isolated far at sea, on islands, or in a wilderness, roadless areas, or areas cut off by natural disaster from rapid overland access, or for access to one of a kind resources that aren't available locally in a much more developed area that must reach their destinations on the fastest possible schedule.

* The package is carried by a quadcopter drone that can pickup and land vertically from a specified spot. For example, it might pick up a package from a hospital helipad and deliver the package at a different hospital or ship helipad. The quadcopter's range is not particularly great, maybe 15-50 km, and the maximum altitude isn't particularly exceptional. The quadcopter is ideally battery powered, rather than having its own engine to make it easier to maintain.

* The quadcopter drone with its package is picked up and released in the air from a fixed wing supersonic aircraft drone, comparable in size or something than a small jet fighter, and as fast or faster at cruising speed than a small jet fighter.

* The fixed wing supersonic aircraft drone is meant for civilian use. It has no armaments, no flare defenses, no stealth, no military grade avionics, no super maneuverability, and no ability to refuel in mid-air. It can handle autonomous, instrument only landings and can interact with ground control via a link with a base station operator. It can take off and land at any general aviation airport, but is not capable for "short" or "vertical" takeoff and landing by jet fighter standards itself, and uses some form of widely available jet fuel. The design seeks to minimize, but not to eliminate entirely, a sonic boom. The range is as long as technologically feasible perhaps 5000 km. The technical feasibility of this is demonstrated by the prototype X-59.

The virtue of the drone v. the manned option is that it allows for a smaller size (and scale matters a lot in the capabilities of things that fly, favoring smaller designs), and a lower cost.

Variant Two

Skip the quadcopter, which would be dealt with by using a locally supplied helicopter or drone quadcopter between the closest general aviation airport and the actual delivery site. 

This would result in only a modest delivery time hit, but would greatly reduce technological complexity, size, and cost.

Variant Three

A manned variant with similar capabilities to the primary fixed wing aircraft, might skip the carried drone with VTOL capabilities, instead have a crew of one pilot and would deliver: (1) a medic and a litter passenger, (2) one passenger and 500 kg of cargo, (3) two passengers (one in a jump seat) and 250 kg of cargo, or (4) three passengers (two in jump seats). This could be used to transport a patient or to deliver specialist doctors or other experts in a very time dependent manner. It might be larger than a jet fighter, and similar in size to a small private jet (some of which can reach 0.94 times the speed of sound already, and an 8000 km range, with more cargo and passenger space than complicated for this plane). 

If the cost/need analysis determined it was a better idea, the cargo/passenger capacity might be doubled. 

Configured for quick loading and unloading, this could be a higher cost, but more versatile, alternative to Variant Two. 

A sub-variant might allow for airdrops of cargo by parachute with GPS guidance, and for passengers to parachute out. Or, some of the cargo space might be used for a motorcycle (with or without a sidecar), or an ATV, or even a small jeep, or even an airdrop-ready high sea state worthy, deep ocean life raft. These might be useful in search and rescue operations.