Third Generation Flying Eye Hospital Set For Departure

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Orbis International is planning to take a “new” Boeing MD-10 Flying Eye hospital on its inaugural work trip next month, a back-to-the-future mission to China, the augural destination for the first Orbis flying eye hospital, a DC-8, back in 1982.

A non-profit organization that strives to prevent and treat blindness worldwide, Orbis typically completes 10-12 aircraft missions per year, flying doctors, nurses and anesthesiologists – all volunteers – across the globe to provide hands-on ophthalmology training to health workers onboard the MD-10, a fully accredited teaching hospital.

A key purpose of the organization is to prevent “avoidable blindness”. Orbis estimates that there are 280 million visually impaired people in the world and 80% of them do not have to be: 240 million just need glasses, the other 40 million can be cured if they can afford or have access to eye care.

Jack McHale, director of the MD-10 program (as well as a former interim president and CEO of Orbis and the former managing director of aircraft acquisitions at FedEx), gave Aviation Week a tour of the MD-10 on a stopover at the Reagan Washington National Airport on June 30. FedEx donated the aircraft to Orbis and a host of other companies provided financial help for the modifications and outfitting.

While the MD-10 performs the same mission as its predecessors – the DC-8 from 1982-1992 and a DC-10 from 1992-2016 – its internals are quite different, explains McHale. Both the DC-8 and DC-10 were passenger aircraft that had to be converted into mobile hospitals, meaning the operating rooms were certified as an integral part of the aircraft, an expensive proposition.

No so with the MD-10. Aside from the “theater” or teaching area at the front of the aircraft...

More: http://aviationweek.com/blog/third-generation-flying-eye-hospital-set-departure