AMS Heli Design, LLC has announced the receipt of a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) supplementary type certificate (STC) for a new lightweight, quickly removable emergency medical services advanced life support system (ALSS) interior for Leonardo AW119 and AW109 helicopters.
Andrea Girolin, chief executive officer for AMS Heli Design, said the ALSS interior has been developed with doctors’, nurses’, and paramedics’ feedback and with the new technology by extensive use of composites and advanced materials, and it can be removed in less than 10 minutes for cleaning and quick change purposes.
The ability to remove and re-install the interior components so quickly allows deep blood cleaning as often as needed, and this is a great advantage for corrosion prevention and clean daily operations — maintenance personnel love this capability.
The ALSS interior is customizable and includes electrical outlets, a high-capacity oxygen system, medical air and suction provisions, and a litter support turret topped with an articulating stretcher that allows patients to be loaded feet-first into the helicopter and then turned roughly 90 degrees so the stretcher is parallel to the helicopter doors.
Further, the design allows a free stretcher movement inside the cabin with no requirement to raise/remove any seat backrest, and this is “game changing” in day to day operations, permitting a comfortable, quick and easy loading/unloading of the patient.
“Sometimes minutes count and our interior can make the difference,” said Girolin.
Further, the ALSS installation is night vision goggle operation-compliant and compatible.
While it has applications in the EMS market, Girolin noted the interior would also be suitable for multirole helicopters that need to be reconfigured often and quickly.
“I’m sure that we can bring the quick change capabilities into great advantage for operators that want to have the capability of an EMS helicopter, but not restricted to that,” he said.
The interior has been selected by the South African Red Cross to be installed on its three new AW119Kx helicopters and on another five helicopters that will join the fleet in 2018 and 2019, said Girolin.
Further AMS Heli Design announced that AMS interior has also been selected by a Guinea operator for its EMS-utility/VIP quick change operations on one AW109E Power helicopter.
“I’m proud of the product we have created and presented,” said Girolin in a statement after HAI Heli-Expo 2017 in Dallas, Texas, where his company launched the new interior. “Finally, we can offer the market this interior fully certified.”
