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Review
. 2018 Aug;18(4):297-300.
doi: 10.7861/clinmedicine.18-4-297.

100 years of the Royal Air Force's contribution to medicine: providing care in the air and delivering care by air

Bonnie N Posselt  1 , Andrew M Greenhalgh  2 , Michael K Almond  3
Affiliations
Review

100 years of the Royal Air Force's contribution to medicine: providing care in the air and delivering care by air

Bonnie N Posselt et al. Clin Med (Lond). 2018 Aug.

Abstract

The Royal Air Force (RAF) came into being during World War I as the world's first independent air force on the 1 April 1918, amalgamating elements of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), itself established in 1912 and the Royal Naval Air Service which had formally separated from the Admiralty's administered Air Wing of the RFC in 1915. The RAF therefore celebrates its 100th anniversary in the same year that the Royal College of Physicians of London celebrates its 500th. This article will cover the contribution that military aviation has made to medicine since 1913 with the emphasis of three examples focusing on delivering care by air, providing care in the air and in developing systems for supporting aircrew or patients at the extremes of physiological stress.

Keywords: Royal Air Force; aeromedical evacuation; aviation Medicine; dialysis; oxygen systems.

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Figures

Fig 1.
Fig 1.
Samuel Cody at the controls of Cody Aircraft Mark VIA demonstrating its potential as an ambulance plane to the British Army. Reproduced with permission from the Imperial War Museum © IWM.
Fig 2.
Fig 2.
Continuous flow oxygen delivered by a tube held in the mouth. Reproduced with permission from the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust (FAST) archive.
Fig 3.
Fig 3.
Continuous flow oxygen delivered by a tube inserted into a face mask. Reproduced with permission from the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust (FAST) archive.
Fig 4.
Fig 4.
P/Q mask. Photo taken at RAF Centre of Aviation Medicine by Bonnie Posselt and reproduced with permission.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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