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GVH Aerospace announced that its AeroStretcher® Mk IV modular aeromedical system has been selected by the Caboolture Hospital in Queensland, Australia, as its new critical care transfer stretcher.

“We are extremely pleased that the Caboolture Hospital has selected our system as their critical care transfer stretcher as this is validation of the design philosophy that went into the conception of this product,” said GVH Aerospace CEO Gareth Dyer. “This modular aeromedical system was designed to provide a seamless transfer between air and road ambulances, and we have collaborated closely with medical professionals to ensure the systems meets clinical care requirements on an equal footing with airworthiness certification.”

“GVH Aerospace has created a high quality product with many innovative and patient-focussed features. All aspects of patient handling have been addressed, from loading and unloading the patient to equipment security while in transit. This stretcher is an example of excellent engineering and collaboration with front-line clinicians,” said Caboolture Hospital’s Emergency Staff Specialist Dr Doug Feinbloom. He added that the state-of-the-art system demonstrated a leap forward in the safe transfer of critical care patients from Caboolture. Emergency Department Director Dr Sean Keogh, who has over 25 years’ experience in aeromedical and road-based retrieval of critically ill patients, said that the stretcher was one of the most user friendly and effective system he had seen.

The AeroStretcher® Mk IV modular aeromedical system is installed directly on to aircraft seat tracks using GVH Aerospace’s patent-pending multi-fit floor interface system. The system is installed and removed in minutes without the need for tools and can be quickly adapted to any aircraft with standard seat track fittings. The modular design of the system provides multi-role and utility operators with mix-and-match flexibility in configuring the aircraft to provide different levels of medical care capability, from simple casualty evacuation to inflight critical care. The product family include litter stretcher, standard stretcher, stretcher bridge, medical equipment mounts and oxygen bottle stowage racks.

The AeroStretcher® Mk IV modular aeromedical system has been selected by RUAG as the standard medical and casualty evacuation system on the Dornier 228 aircraft. It is also certified for installation on the Airbus H135 helicopter as an EASA STC and currently being certified on other popular helicopter types.

Picture Caption: GVH Aerospace’s Brett Worsley, with Caboolture Hospital’s Dr Lance Le Ray, Dr Doug Feinbloom and Dr Sean Keogh and the AeroStretcher Mk IV modular aeromedical strecher system.

The GVH Aerospace team spent the 21st of June 2018 pushing themselves to the limits of their endurance raising funds for Legacy at the Canungra Combat Challenge. Legacy is a charity providing services to the families of Australian Defence Force men and women who have lost their lives or health as a result of their service.

The team of 8 from GVH Aerospace followed the footsteps of generations of Australian soldiers to push themselves mentally and physically through 7km of obstacles, bush trails and soldier exercises at the Kokoda Barracks. The challenge include a run wearing ballistic protection, log carry, stretcher carry, sand bag carry, and completing a series of 20 obstacles including balance walks, tunnel crawls, vertical and horizontal cargo nets, and coiled barbed wire fences. The challenge finishs off with a swim across the freezing Canungra river.

GVH Aerospace has been awarded the EASA STC for the installation of its AeroStretcher Mk IV Modular Aeromedical System on the Airbus H135 helicopter. The AeroStretcher Mk IV system is an evolution of the previous Mk III product which was very well received by the helicopter transport operators and provided them with the capability to rapidly reconfigure their aircraft to support medevac missions. The Mk IV system improves on that operational capability significantly with a broader product range and a more cost-efficient pricing model.

The AeroStretcher Mk IV system is installed directly on the aircraft seat tracks using a patent-pending multi-fit floor interface system. The system is installed and removed in minutes without the need for tools and can be quickly adapted to any aircraft with standard seat rrack fittings. The modular design of the system provides multi-role and utility operators with mix-and-match flexibility in configuring their aircraft to provide different levels of medical care capability, from simple casualty evacuation to inflight critical care. The product family include litter stretcher, standard stretcher, stretcher bridge and oxygen bottle stowage racks.

The AeroStretcher® Mk IV product has also been selected by RUAG as the standard medical and casualty evacuation equipment for the Dornier 228 aircraft. Further STCs on other popular helicopter and fixed wing aircraft types are currently in work.

GVH Aerospace are demonstrating the system on their H135 aircraft on display at Farnborough Airshow Hall 4, from 16th – 20th July 2018.

GVH Aerospace has been selected to design, manufacture and supply a hoist light for Boeing Defence Australia’s Helicopter Aircrew Training System (HATS). The selection concludes the competitive tender process and the hoist light product will be used for night hoisting training to provide the aircrewman with adequate illumination to carry out hoisting operations safely.

“We are pleased to offer an EASA certified modification and product, working with Boeing to understand their customers’ requirements and ensuring delivery of a best value-for-money product”, said Gareth Dyer, CEO. He added that “The new Australian Defence Aviation Safety Regulations (DASR) allows the Australian Defence Force to accept EASA approved modifications and parts without duplicating regulatory compliance, and this has the potential of simplifying regulatory compliance in the defence industry, and allowing the Australian Department of Defence to leverage the commercial aviation supply chain more cost effectively.”

The hoist light, when installed, illuminates the area directly under the aircraft. The LED light not only complies with the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Regulations requirements for hoisting operation, but also provides a greater level of redundancy due to its multi-element design. GVH Aerospace performed the EASA certification flight test using G-NSYS, the systems and trials helicopter owned by sister company Nova Systems UK.

The Boeing HATS program provides the Australian Defence Force with helicopter aircrew training. The program training asset includes 15 Airbus Helicopters EC135T2+ helicopters, and on maturity, will train up to 130 students each year from the Australian Army and Royal Australian Navy, in addition to qualified aircrew returning for instructor training.