PIREP Winter 2001

Editor’s Note: PIREP is aviation shorthand for pilot report. It’s a means for one pilot to pass on current, potentially useful information to other pilots. In the same fashion, we intend to use this department to let readers know about aerospace-power items of interest.

C-9 Nightingale

From Dedicated Aeromedical Evacuation
to Theater Transport

Capt Gilles Van Nederveen, USAF, Retired*

*Capt Gilles Van Nederveen, a former associate editor of Aerospace Power Journal, is a career intelligence officer who flew on RC-135, EC-130, and E-8 aircraft. He has worked in both national and joint intelligence assignments.

IN ORDER TO provide specialized aero-medical evacuation, the Air Force bought 24 variants of the commercial DC-9 series 30 model in 1968. Twenty C-9A Nightingales—the only dedicated medical-airlift aircraft in the world—continue to serve with the 86th Airlift Wing at Ramstein Air Base, Germany; the 374th Airlift Wing at Yokota Air Base, Japan; and the 375th Airlift Wing at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois. In 2000 the C-9As based in the continental United States (CONUS) transported over 30,000 patients in 1,300 missions to military, Department of Veterans Affairs, and civilian hospitals. Aircraft at the overseas locations moved more than 10,600 patients in Europe and another 1,000 in the Pacific theater, helping ensure that those patients received the specialized care they needed. Additionally, three VC-9Cs configured as VIP transports operate from Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, as part of the 89th Airlift Wing. (The remaining aircraft crashed in a fatal accident.)

Capable of carrying a mix of litter or ambulatory patients, the C-9A has numerous modifications—including oxygen outlets, a medical refrigerator, a separate ventilation system, and a folding ramp—designed to provide for the care and comfort of 40 patients. In peacetime, patients are stabilized prior to transport, but equipment on board the aircraft allows medical personnel to stabilize patients in flight.

However, age is quickly catching up to these airframes, which have noisy, inefficient engines; an older cockpit layout; and outdated navigational aids. Although the Air Force has recently updated some of the avionics, it still needs to replace the aircraft between fiscal years 2004 and 2010. In the interim, Air Mobility Command (AMC) is working on roll-on/ roll-off pallets so it can use other aircraft in the aeromedical role. These pallets will allow aeroevacuation nurses to stabilize patients, but most of the other AMC airframes, such as the C-21, cannot transport patients until they have been stabilized. Furthermore, in an attempt to cut costs for dedicated platforms, the Air Force is conducting an ongoing analysis of AMC aircraft, looking for aeromedical-evacuation alternatives. Like the C-141 before it, the C-17 already flies long-distance aeromedical flights from overseas theaters to the CONUS. Both the elimination of the C-141 in active-duty squadrons and the small number of C-17s have forced airlift planners to look at other airframes for theater-evacuation missions, including the use of Civil Reserve Air Fleet aircraft such as the Boeing 767.

Meanwhile, downsizing of the US military overseas has proved stressful for intratheater airlift. As the need to move large numbers of patients has declined, C-9s have been pressed into service for nonmedical airlift duties. Consequently, in order to comply with the Geneva convention covering the use of the Red Cross symbol, the Air Force is removing the cross from the T-tails of the C-9 fleet so that it can use these aircraft for other airlift missions.

Current service planning has not identified a replacement for the C-9 Nightingale. Part of the answer may involve the 89th Airlift Wing’s three VC-9Cs, which a VIP/special air mission (SAM) fleet review found lacking in terms of range and carrying capacity. Specifically, the VC-9C can transport 22 passengers for only 2,150 nautical miles—too short a distance for medium VIP airlift. Thus, AMC has recommended the purchase of three C-40Bs to replace the VC-9C airframes.

Indeed, according to an announcement by Boeing, the company “is being awarded a contract worth up to $800 million from the U.S. Air Force to supply as many as seven C-40B and C-40C aircraft and 10 years of logistics support. The aircraft are based on the Boeing Business Jet and will be used to support the needs of Air Force commanders-in-chief and the Air National Guard. The firm order for one C-40B makes it the second such aircraft procured by the Air Force.”¹ The first C-40Bs will be based at Andrews Air Force Base, where they will replace the C-22 (Boeing 727) transports used by Headquarters Air National Guard.

The US Navy also is currently buying the C-40—a Boeing 737-700—to replace its C-9 cargo/passenger fleet. The C-40’s range of 3,700 nautical miles; glass cockpit; and newer, quieter, and more efficient engines make it attractive to the US military. The Navy version comes equipped with a seven-by-11-foot door, which facilitates the loading not only of cargo pallets but also litter patients if the C-40 is used as an aeromedical-evacuation aircraft. Thus, the US military is taking steps—including the updating of existing airframes and the purchasing of new aircraft—to ensure that the vital mission of medical airlift continues uninterrupted.

Note

1. “U.S. Air Force to Award C-40B Contract,” Forum, on-line, Internet, 24 September 2001, available from "http://www.boeing.com/commercial/forum/issues/0301/htm/a06.htm" .

Disclaimer

The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.

C-9 Nightingale

From Dedicated Aeromedical Evacuation to Theater Transport

From Dedicated Aeromedical Evacuation
to Theater Transport