Moscow. 26 April 2021. Today it is difficult to imagine the work of doctors and rescuers without the use ofaviation. Providing emergency medical care, rescuing people in conditions of man-made and natural disasters, assistance in extinguishing forest fires – all these types of work today are unthinkable without the use of specially equipped airplanes and helicopters. MAKS traditionally pays increased attention to this aircraft, which has become an important component of the national public safety system.
A year ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed establishing a new professional holiday on April 28 – the Day of the Ambulance Worker. Before that, it was celebrated unofficially: it was on April 28, 1898 that the first organized ambulance stations and the first pair of carriages for transporting sick patients appeared in Moscow. Today, more than 120 years later, carriages have replaced cars, airplanes and helicopters.
And two days later, on April 30, the Day of Firefighters is celebrated, which has an even longer history. On April 30, 1649, the “Order of the City Deanery” was issued – an analogue of the modern federal law, prescribing the staffing of firefighters, equipment and equipment, allowances and other social guarantees for firefighters. For more than 370 years of existence, the fire brigade has turned from a horse-drawn tram with a barrel of water into a mobile multifunctional structure capable of effectively fighting fire, including using aircraft.
In fact, a whole section of aviation technology has appeared, including airplanes and special-purpose helicopters, which are equipped with everything necessary to perform a wide range of rescue operations. Today, aviation rescue technologies are a rapidly developing area of aviation work, which is under the close attention of the state and receives serious financial support.
Airplanes and helicopters with medical modules are traditional participants in the demonstrations of aircraft at MAKS. For the first time, a large-scale conference on the program for the development of air ambulance in Russia was held at MAKS-2017. The master class on the work of the aviation medical brigade on helicopters equipped with medical modules, held within its framework, aroused great interest of specialists, first of all, to the medical versions of the Ansat and Mi-8AMT / MTV helicopters. Their choice for the needs of the domestic air ambulance is not accidental: these machines are perfectly suited for operation throughout the country and are well known to the flight technical personnel. Medical “Ansats” dominate when performing work in urban conditions, while equipped with medical modules Mi-8AMT and Mi-8MTV are in demand for work in remote areas, which is especially important for the Ural, Siberian and Far Eastern federal districts, as well as the regions of the Arctic. Equipping aircraft with the most modern medical equipment allows today not only to monitor the patient’s condition in flight, but also to carry out full-fledged resuscitation measures on board.
The history of the conquest of the market by Ansat helicopters can be clearly traced in the participation of this aircraft in the MAKS airshows. Back in 2001, in the static parking lot of the saloon, one could see a model of the “Ansat” in the version for medical aviation. The zero years were not easy for the creators of the car, but they managed to bring their brainchild up to condition and certify the car. In 2016, the first helicopter of this type began transporting patients, and in 2019 MAKS demonstrated an already modernized helicopter with a “glass cockpit” and a fully digital flight and navigation complex. During this time, “Ansat” has confirmed its performance in high mountain conditions, at temperatures ranging from -45 to +50 degrees. And in the most modern version of this universal family – “Ansat-M” – he received an additional fuel tank and an anti-icing system. We are waiting for a new product at MAKS-2021.
The premiere of MAKS-2021 will be the light multipurpose aircraft LMS-901, created by the Ural Civil Aviation Plant to replace the veteran An-2. In the future, the aircraft will also have a version with a medical module and a version for Avialesoohrana.
The upgraded Ka-32A11M helicopter is another upcoming MAKS-2021 premiere. The vehicle, which is actively used for fire extinguishing, will feature a completely “glass cockpit”, more powerful VK-2500PS-02 engines and a new digitally controlled water tank that allows more efficient pick-up and discharge of up to four tons of water and operate even at subzero air temperatures.
The Be-200 amphibious aircraft became a permanent participant not only in the static exposition, but also in the MAKS flight program. This is a real all-rounder: in addition to firefighting, it can be used for search and rescue operations, delivering people and transporting goods, carrying out sanitary services, and patrolling. For the first time, the Be-200 was demonstrated at the salon in Zhukovsky in 1999 and became the star of the exhibition. Being the only serial amphibious jet aircraft in the world, the Be-200 has a record-breaking performance in extinguishing fires: for one refueling, it is capable of dropping up to 270 tons of water onto the fire site. At subsequent shows, new modifications of the aircraft were demonstrated, which gradually gained a reputation for its successful work in extreme conditions. At MAKS-2019, the Be-200 demonstrated in flight its high maneuverability and power-to-weight ratio, which are important for aircraft fighting fires in mountainous areas. And, of course, it is impossible to imagine the MAKS flight program without the final chord – a spectacular flight of the Be-200, throwing clouds of water into the air, painted in the Russian tricolor.
We congratulate ambulance workers and fire brigade workers on their professional holidays! We wish you good health, safe flights and professional growth. And the creators of aviation technology will improve their designs so that winged assistants become more reliable, safer, more productive and more convenient to use. Well, as always, we invite you to MAKS to look at the aviation news!
