ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to introduce the reader to all aspects of aeromedical transportation since, clearly, fixed and rotary wing aircraft can be used in a number of diverse ways. Not only are the missions, and the injuries and illnesses of the patients, widely disparate, but the types of aircraft that can be used will vary accordingly. For instance, there is a great difference between the operations of an urban HEMS helicopter and an air ambulance company which specializes only in long distance repatriations. Also, the transfer of a relatively healthy post-operative patient who may require only a nurse escort from his holiday destination to home, differs significantly from that of a critically injured child who is airlifted, unconscious and bleeding, from the scene of a motor vehicle accident. A wide assortment of aircraft types are therefore used, and each has advantages and disadvantages over the next, depending on the requirements of the mission. Outside of the military and the emergency medical services though, few operators maintain aircraft solely for aeromedical use, relying rather on the adaptation of existing types, as and when the operational requirement arises.
