When Pilot Arthur Affleck took off from Cloncurry on 17 May 1928, he was flying a DeHavilland DH50A, a single engine, timber and fabric bi-plane named ‘Victory’ (leased by QANTAS for two shillings per mile flown). He had with him the very first of our flying doctors, Dr Kenyon St Vincent Welch.
The DeHavilland could carry a pilot and four passengers at a cruising speed of eighty miles per hour for a range of 500 to 600 miles.
In those days, not much territory was charted, and so our pilots were forced to navigate by river beds, fences, telegraph lines and other familiar landmarks.
Despite these obstacles, in its inaugural year, the Aerial Medical Service (later to be known as the Royal Flying Doctor Service):
- flew 50 flights to 26 destinations
- treated 225 patients
Sixty years after the first flight, the RFDS owned a fleet of 34 twin-engined aircraft and our medical teams were assessing over 11,000 patients.