What kinds of air ambulance exist?

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Air Ambulance Planes: Picking the best aircraft type for your medical flight. 

Most patients do not know about the different types of ambulance planes that exist. They are just aware that they need to be transported from one location to another. However, being aware of the different types of air ambulance planes may help you make more informed decisions when organizing a patient transport, especially considering the vast amount of ambulance aircraft available. 

What are the different types of air ambulance planes and aircraft that exist?

• There are two different categories of air ambulance planes: turboprop or ambulance jets
• Turboprop Air Ambulance Planes are cheaper to operate, but smaller.
• Air Ambulance jets have greater speed and range
• At Medical Air Service, we have aviation experts that will select the most apt air ambulance plane for you based on your situation

What is an air ambulance plane and what type of air ambulance planes exist?

An air ambulance plane (sometimes referred to as a rescue plane) is an aircraft that has been professionally equipped as a flying ambulance and can either be a turboprop or jet plane.

They are specifically operated for a multitude of air medical services including medical evacuations or emergency air medical repatriations. Two examples are turboprop planes or ambulance jets.

What are turboprop rescue planes?

Turbo-prop rescue planes are rather slower than ambulance jets but have the advantage of being cheaper to operate, as well as being capable of landing at small, regional airports with shorter runways which would not be long enough for jet aircraft. Being a smaller aircraft enables some turbo-prop air ambulances such as the King Air 90, King Air 200, Piper Cheyenne etc. to land closer to their target location.

What are the specifications of an ambulance jet

However, current ambulance jets such as the Learjet, Citation Bravo, Citation Mustang, Bombardier Challenger, Boeing Business Jet, Hawker and Embraer Phenom have the advantage of speed and range, enabling them to collect and repatriate patients between continents extremely quickly.

Both ambulance jets and turboprop planes hold their own advantages when considering medevac flights or emergency repatriations. It goes without saying that while we will advise you on the best medical planes for your situation, you can select your own air ambulance.

Good to know: If you need an aircraft for repatriation or other patient transport we can supply information in advance about the ambulance jets or medical helicopters we employ.

Do you have any questions about ambulance planes?

Should you have any questions regarding medical repatriation, we are happy to offer you round-the-clock advice to help you make the right choice!

If you would like to know more about the kinds of aircraft used for ambulance flights, please see our list of FAQs.

Contact us for an air ambulance plane

Our team members are available 24/7 to provide advice. We can arrange quick medical flights worldwide both in air ambulance planes and medical helicopters.