Devon Air Ambulance, August 17, 2018 - Devon Air Ambulance prides itself on being a dynamic and forward-thinking charity, committed to providing the very best patient care and ensuring the service continues to grow and improve.
The exciting next step in this development is just about to be taken, with the purchase of a new state of the art Airbus H145 helicopter, which will be on duty from the service’s Exeter airbase from mid-2020.
The existing helicopter, which is already ‘night flight ready’ and operates up until midnight every day, will replace our older aircraft, currently flying from the service’s North Devon airbase near Umberleigh.
Heléna Holt, CEO of Devon Air Ambulance said “We aim to replace our helicopters, on average, every 10 years. We have undertaken extensive research into what would be the best helicopter to meet our current, and future, operational needs. We are fortunate that we have some extremely knowledgeable flight operations and clinical staff, who have been fully engaged over the past 18 months looking at all the options available to us, not only for the airframe itself, but also the state-of-the-art interior and medical equipment we can carry.”
“As our main consideration is always to provide the very best care to our patients, this has been paramount as we have looked at what new helicopters are available. We feel that the H145 is perfect for our current and future needs.”
“The H145 has significantly more accessible cabin space than our current EC135s and this extra size gives us greater capacity and flexibility as we continue to enhance the service we can offer to our patients”
“An added benefit is that our existing Exeter aircraft will move to work out of our North Devon airbase, thereby meaning that both our aircraft will be capable of flying into the hours of darkness when we look to extending this part of our service”
Devon Air Ambulance owns its current two aircraft. The new aircraft purchase will cost in the region of €8.5m, but this will be offset by the onward sale of the older helicopter, G-DVAA.
Ian Payne, Flight Operations Director for Devon Air Ambulance added “We are looking forward to welcoming the H145, registration G-DAAS in 2020. The aircraft type which was chosen for many reasons, is in service with several air ambulance units in the UK and numerous emergency operations throughout Europe.
“A successful, mature product, H145 is manufactured by the same organisation as our EC135s so in addition to operational performance we will be able to build further upon the strong working relationship with Airbus developed over many years.
“As a result, there are clear opportunities for future fleet harmonisation bringing efficiencies in operational planning, logistic and engineering support, training and aircraft safety.”
Airbus Helicopters will be providing the charity with updates and photos throughout the build of G-DAAS and we plan to share this with all our supporters through social media.
The exciting next step in this development is just about to be taken, with the purchase of a new state of the art Airbus H145 helicopter, which will be on duty from the service’s Exeter airbase from mid-2020.
The existing helicopter, which is already ‘night flight ready’ and operates up until midnight every day, will replace our older aircraft, currently flying from the service’s North Devon airbase near Umberleigh.
Heléna Holt, CEO of Devon Air Ambulance said “We aim to replace our helicopters, on average, every 10 years. We have undertaken extensive research into what would be the best helicopter to meet our current, and future, operational needs. We are fortunate that we have some extremely knowledgeable flight operations and clinical staff, who have been fully engaged over the past 18 months looking at all the options available to us, not only for the airframe itself, but also the state-of-the-art interior and medical equipment we can carry.”
“As our main consideration is always to provide the very best care to our patients, this has been paramount as we have looked at what new helicopters are available. We feel that the H145 is perfect for our current and future needs.”
“The H145 has significantly more accessible cabin space than our current EC135s and this extra size gives us greater capacity and flexibility as we continue to enhance the service we can offer to our patients”
“An added benefit is that our existing Exeter aircraft will move to work out of our North Devon airbase, thereby meaning that both our aircraft will be capable of flying into the hours of darkness when we look to extending this part of our service”
Devon Air Ambulance owns its current two aircraft. The new aircraft purchase will cost in the region of €8.5m, but this will be offset by the onward sale of the older helicopter, G-DVAA.
Ian Payne, Flight Operations Director for Devon Air Ambulance added “We are looking forward to welcoming the H145, registration G-DAAS in 2020. The aircraft type which was chosen for many reasons, is in service with several air ambulance units in the UK and numerous emergency operations throughout Europe.
“A successful, mature product, H145 is manufactured by the same organisation as our EC135s so in addition to operational performance we will be able to build further upon the strong working relationship with Airbus developed over many years.
“As a result, there are clear opportunities for future fleet harmonisation bringing efficiencies in operational planning, logistic and engineering support, training and aircraft safety.”
Airbus Helicopters will be providing the charity with updates and photos throughout the build of G-DAAS and we plan to share this with all our supporters through social media.
H145D2 / EC145T2 G-DAAS ( UK Air Ambulances )
Exeter See also |
DAAT
Devon Air Ambulance UK Air Ambulances H145D2 / EC145T2 in
UK Air Ambulances Devon Air Ambulance New Helicopter
