The unsung Air Ambulance ...

[Mark Allen M]

Below a USAAF Stinson L-5B Sentinel being used as a flying ambulance.

Quote: "In the late models-the E and G ambulance version - a crank hangs out of the overhead directly in front of the pilot's forehead which, when turned, will droop the ailerons 15 degrees to make them into "flaperons" for full span additional lift in high pucker factor situations. The ambulance models also have one of the more hysterical military placards you'll run across. It states, "Intentional spinning with litter patients is prohibited." Makes you wonder what ambulance pilots had been doing to fight boredom when returning with a casualty, doesn't it?"
http://www.airbum.com/pireps/PirepStinsonL-5.html


Stinson Model 76, built for ambulance duties 99574 was not originally assigned a USAAF serial number and was retained by Stinson through Apr 1944. At that time it is believed to have been modified to become the prototype L-5B and was eventually delivered to USAAf as 42-99574.

Below an RAAF De Havilland Tiger Moth being used as a flying ambulance.


de Havilland Tiger Moth A17-450 converted as an air ambulance, while with 1AD, on the 6th of June, 1943.
Photo: RAAF 000-154-599_7

[mike furline]

HE-1 BuNo 30197, Pax River Jan. 1943

[Sopwith]

Wow I didn’t know that the Tiger Moth had been converted into an ambulance. Thanks for posting.

[JohnB]

Anyone know if a real HE-1 survives/flies?

And don't forget the H-13 of Korean War fame.
The first widely used helicopter ambulance. (They did put enclosed litters in some H-6s in WWII, but they weren't widely used).
The ship on my avatar is an ex-H-13E...so it might have been outfitted with litters at some point.

[mike furline]

Anyone know if a real HE-1 survives/flies?

http://www.waaamuseum.org/collections/a ... Piper-HE-1
http://www.john2031.com/piper/j-5/photo ... ation.html
https://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquir ... 1&PageNo=1
http://microworks.net/pacific/aviation/ae-1.htm

[JohnB]

Thanks, I should have known the WAAAM had one.
Its hinged turtledeck might be a handy feature to have.
WAG Air produced a fuselage assembly with that feature for homebuilt Cub clones.

[Mark Allen M]

AE-1

[Forgotten Field]

Intentional spinning with litter patients is prohibited

At WWII Weekend at Mid Atlantic Air Museum about 10 years ago, a guy walked up to L-5E 44-17543 with a friend of about the same age and looked in the aft seat area. He crouched down, stood up and took his hat off, and said, "Right there, I told you, I told you! It's right there!" He was pointing to the placard for no spinning. He told the story of being medevac'ed in Korea. He said they put him in the airplane, and he looked up and saw that placard and was immediately terrified. He heard the pilot laugh and thought he was going to die on the way out of combat. His friend said he had been telling that story for 50 years and nobody believed him. It sure was a good day to own an L-5 that day.

I'm not sure why they put the placard there myself. My instructor and I tried to spin and were unable to make entry. It wound up being a stall which it nearly flew out of by itself. But here are a few details about the L-5 ambulance configuration. If you have looked at mine at shows, the restorer put a single piece of plywood in the rear behind the aft cockpit with a hinged piece so it is one long cargo compartment floor, a practical improvement. The original configuration is that there are two small plywood floors covered with stainless steel for placing litter stirrups. There is a void between these two stands. There are instructions for loading cargo on these two stands, and the heavier cargo allowance is for the forward stand. When loaded in litter configuration, a patient's center of mass will be aft of the center of these two stands, or about to the rear portion of that void. I think this makes an aft CG in the aircraft. The airplane is not good to load with an aft CG like any conventional gear airplane, and perhaps the aft CG makes spins difficult recovery.

If anybody wants to write a grant to investigate this, I'm on board.

Best- FFATC

[Scott Rose]

Unloading a medical AE-1 Cub from a C-46 Commando, Peleliu Island, 1944.

[phil65]

It looks like it's giving birth...

Phil

[Cvairwerks]

FF: the spin placard is probably part of the results of the original wing with the full length slats. Al Schramm nearly lost one of the pro types during the spin tests, due to the full span slats. The design was changed to reduce the possibility, but I think the no spin prohibition remained due to the cg with a patient onboard. Wish I had been able to to talk with Al when he was alive.

[JohnB]

Regarding the L-5E...The late Gordon Baxter in his first column for FLYING magazine in the early 70s wrote "...If I were that badly wounded they might have gotten me in there,but they never would get the claw marks off the inside".

[JohnB]

An image of my favorite in ambulance mode...

Attachments

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[Mark Allen M]

French Air Force Ambulastorch 1949

[mike furline]

Stinson L-1B