The brand new particular coloured plane was unveiled throughout a ceremony held at Ciampino Airport, dwelling of the 31° Stormo (Wing) of the Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Drive).
Earlier this year, with a medical transport mission flown by a Falcon 900 of the 31° Stormo (Wing) the Dassault Falcon fleet of the Italian Air Drive reached 150,000 flight hours for the reason that first plane, a Falcon 50 (MM62020) was delivered to the unit in 1985. The 50K flight hours have been logged in November 2000 and the 100K FH mark was reached in 2009.
The essential milestone was celebrated throughout a ceremony held in Ciampino Airport, on Apr. 28, 2023. Through the occasion, that noticed the participation of Maj. Gen. Enrico Degni, commander of the Comando delle Forze per la Mobilità e il Supporto (Italian for Mobility and Assist Forces Command) in addition to Dassault Aviation and Dassault Falcon Service executives together with Italian Air Drive personnel who’ve served with the Wing, the commander of the 31° Stormo, Col. Gianmattia Somma, formally unveiled the particular coloured Falcon 50 (VC-50 in accordance with the Italian MOD Mission Design Sequence) that was ready to mark the 150K flight hours of the Falcon fleet.
The present fleet is fabricated from two Falcon 50 (MM62026 and MM62029) and three Falcon 900 (VC-900): one 900EX (MM62210) and two Falcon 900EX-Straightforward (MM62244 and MM62245).
Each repeatedly perform “hospital” (EMS) in addition to “humanitarian” flights. It isn’t the vary of the flight that determines the kind of mission, however the chance to plan the sortie: “Humanitarian” are these flights whose want is understood with even a little bit forewarning; “Hospital” flights are these whose want was beforehand unknown and require a departure inside 2 hours. The plane used for the latter are solely the Falcon 50 and the Falcon 900EX-Straightforward that make sure the transportation on the medium-long vary and might each embark stretchers. The Falcon 50 has an endurance that exceeds the 7 hours, has 9 seats and might carry 2 stretchers. The extra fashionable Falcon 900EX-Straightforward, affords elevated payload and an endurance of as much as 10 hours.
Though equivalent to the 900EX (similar airframe, engine and thus endurance), the “Straightforward” has digital avionics and cabin area to hold 3 stretchers. Moreover, the plane is supplied with the EVASAN module that may present energy and oxygen to electro-medical gear.
Apparently, the Falcon 50 plane, together with the Airbus A319CJ (VC-319), are flown by the 93° Gruppo (Squadron) of the 31° Stormo; the opposite little one unit, the 306° Gruppo, operates the Falcon 900EX and EX-Straightforward, together with the AW139 (UH- and VH-139) helicopters.
Whereas the VC-50s are solely used for medical transportation missions, the 31° Stormo has a number of duties: State Authorities Transportation, Emergency Medical Providers (EMS) and Humanitarian Transportation, plus a forth one, that foresees the technical and logistic help for all of the plane working at Ciampino airport. Subordinate Line items to the Wing Commander are additionally the CAE (Centro Addestramento Equipaggi, Crew Coaching Centre) that manages all of the coaching and standardisation facets of the Wing, and the SEA (Servizio Efficienza Aeromobili, Plane Effectivity Service) that’s answerable for the road and each day upkeep of the fleet.
David Cenciotti is a journalist primarily based in Rome, Italy. He’s the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of many world’s most well-known and skim navy aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for main worldwide magazines, together with Air Forces Month-to-month, Fight Plane, and plenty of others, protecting aviation, protection, warfare, business, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown a number of fight planes with completely different air forces. He’s a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Drive, a non-public pilot and a graduate in Laptop Engineering. He has written 5 books and contributed to many extra ones.
