AIR AMBULANCE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 28 August 1925, Page 3

AIR AMBULANCE.

BUILT FOR FRANCE. STRETCHERS IN CABIN. A project started - in 1912 by Dr. Ducliaussoy, secretary-general of the Association Des Dames Francaise, lias reached' a success scarcely hoped for when lie died. Da*. Ducliaussoy was instrumental in starting a competition among airplane constructors for the production of a machine capable of transporting four wounded men. This effort apparently came to naught. In spite of this (says the World’s Health), the ambulance airplane lias finally been constructed, and its development has far exceeded the anticipations of enthusiasts. Remarkable services have been rendered in Morocco and in the Levant by the ambulance. The greatest need was to allay any fears that might arise for the safety of the sick and wounded in transporting them by means acknowledged to b e only relatively secure. The idea of the aerial ambulance, although l conceived by a committee of a Red Cross Society, was not actually carried out by that society. • In the meantime Red Cross Societies all over til© world are looking for. ward to the development of the aerial ambulance, and are bending their efforts to overcome the difficulties of organisation! so that this precious instrument may be used for the benefit of the sick and wounded. With the realisation, of the fact that over 2500 sick and wounded French soldiers have been transported by airplane, and that, in 1924, French private air lines covered over 3,000,000 kilometres and suffered only five fatal accidents, fears began to subside. The ideal airplane is one that is safe and easily handled. Such airplanes do exist. They ar© called “pilot school airplanes.” and it is on these that pilots receive their training.

Why has the idea- of using these been developed only recently? Simply because the war emphasised the necessity for swift and fiowerful machines. Experience had to show that the ambulance' airplane in peace time was needed for only one patient at a time. Experience, too, has demonstrated the fundamental importance of an easy landing on any ground. Thus it was at last realised that pilot airplanes' — the simplest, the safest, and the least cumbersome of all machines —were best fitted for this, purpose. The writer of these lines had the opportunity, in 1923, of Avatching Lieut. Thoret make his flying tests. He saAV him adjust the propeller himself AA’liile i n the air, jump doAvn from his pilot’s seat, move about in the air, circle above the high cliffs, and then descend where the fancy took him, perhaps among the stones. He was’ lost in admiration for the high daring of Thoret and for the properties of his machine. “There,” he said to himself, “is the sort of machine Ave need for the Avounded.” Even the simplest ideas are not carried out immediately. But the coincidence of a. great number of circumstances at last made it possible to convert Thoret’s airplane into an ambulance vehicle. The aerial ambulance (H 14 S), brother to the machine with which a pupil of Thoret broke the record by remaining 9 hours and 17 minutes in the air AA'ithout a motor, ■ has recently been released fronr the construction shops of the Hanriot Com. pany. Although, the fact that this, machine was able to remain in the air without a motor for the. space of 9 hours and 17 minutes is a very substantial proof of its stability, this docs not interest us from the point of view of ambulance work, .'Lhe important tiling is to be able to transport the sick Avith safety and economy. The H 14 S can leave and reach tiie earth Avithin a. distance of 40 metres. It can descend almost vertically,, and a skilful pilot could place it on a tennis court. Its system of wheels allows, it to come in contact Avith even the roughest surfaces Avithout danger. It is the safest machine flow existing. Its ambulance equipment consists of a cabin situated, in the fuselage, large enough for a stretcher of tire type’ used in the medical service of ihe French army. A large’ door allows easy entrance for an occupied 1 stretcher. Side AvindoAVs permit an excellent light. For service in hot countries the machines are equipped AA r ith a Ohenard device for ventilation. If they are to he used in colder countries the Avails of the cabin can be doubled and electric heating, generated by the dynamo of the propeller dr by some other means, can be easily installed. When tested, the machine, which Aveiigha 800 kilogrammes, rose with a. reclining passenger to 1000 metres in eight minutes. It carries fuel for a three-hour flight, and lias an average speed of more than. 190 kilometres an hour.

its rotary 80-h.p. motor can be substituted by .a 120 or 140-h.p. fixed motor. With the more powerful motor the machine, naturally has a greater speed, can reach a. higher altitude, •and inakeg its way more easily against an unfavourable wind. Moreover, the fixed motor makes possible the introduction of a special device that enables the pilot himself to start the propeller without leaving his seat, and thus 'contributes towards greater security. This is, in brief, the light machine" which seems destined, both by its cost and its safety, to bring the ideal of an airplane ambulance service within the realm of possibility.