| When thinking of air ambulance transportation, | | | | the pilot would also be the physician. The doctor |
| most people think only of soldiers being | | | | would treat the soldier and then fly them both to |
| transported out of battlefields in the last 40 or so | | | | safety. |
| years. Air ambulance service actually started | | | | It was a few more years before this was |
| many years before that, in the mid 1800's to be | | | | system was more widely accepted. In 1928 |
| exact. | | | | Australia, recognizing the need for greater medical |
| The first written record of the word air | | | | coverage over its vast open space, started the |
| ambulance was in 1866 when shipwrecked sailors | | | | Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia. Doctors |
| were rescued by hot air balloon. The first official | | | | flew to patients, treated them and if needed, |
| use of an air ambulance was in Paris during 1870. | | | | transported them to the hospital. |
| Wounded soldiers were evacuated during the | | | | Acceptance continued and accelerated |
| Siege of Paris. | | | | everywhere after that. Now the service is a |
| Horse and wagon was the most typical | | | | respected, reliable and in many cases preferred |
| ambulance for many years. It was a difficult | | | | method of transporting patients. |
| transition for many people to accept motor | | | | Many different planes have been used as air |
| vehicles as a mode of ambulance transportation. | | | | ambulances. Today, Lear Jets are often the |
| The thought being that patients were all ready in | | | | preferred aircraft because of their range, |
| a scared and unsure condition and that being sent | | | | reliability, comfort and ability to fly long distances. |
| off in motor car would just alarm them even | | | | No matter what type of aircraft is used as an air |
| more. | | | | ambulance today, it is typically stocked with state |
| In the United States the U.S. Army Medical Corps | | | | of the art medical equipment and a superior |
| and the Coast Artillery Corps worked together to | | | | trained staff, both medical and flight. It is the |
| design an air ambulance that would carry a patient | | | | ambulance of choice for long distance |
| on a stretcher. It was 1909 and the plan was that | | | | transportation of a medically fragile patient. |