AW169

ARHT is purchasing an AgustaWestland AW169, due for delivery in 2015. This provides an opportunity to to create a purpose-built interior that will best serve the helicopters mission profiles, and a considerable amount of planning is going into this.

This paper, published in Air Medical Journal 2012, details how specific cabin elements were designed and constructed for a German EC145 (the successor to the BK117 that the ARHT currently operates). Key to the design was a sliding module containing essential medical and monitoring equipment – the module can slide a considerable distance out the rear doors of the helicopter to aid the process of loading/unloading ventilated patients with lots of monitoring equipment in situ.

Full-text pdf of this article is available here (secure area limited to ADHB staff only – ADHB maintains an online subscription to this journal through the Philson Library at the University of Auckland School of Medicine)