Utopian Airforce

[slmvbs]

As a newbie to this site and by way of induction to What-if I was wondering what a humanitarian airforce might look like - a sort of Red Cross / Flying doctor / Thunderbirds NGO outfit: What heavy lift helicopters or cargo aircraft would be in the fleet, would the Miles Aerovan have had a bigger production run? - What would it look like in the 50's, 60's, 70's etc. Is there a role for airships or ACV's? Would flyingboats make a comeback - big time - with a squadron of Saro Princess's. What designs that never left the drawing board would have been well suited to the SAR role?
cheers

[Mossie]

Currently, the Russian EMERCOM is pretty much this kind of set up, they've been around since 1994.  They've got a wide scope & have a huge fleet of aircraft, surface vessels & ground vehicles.  There main focus is the CIS, but they do help out in international disasters.  Aircraft wise, they have quite a fleet of heavy lift aircraft, Mi-8's, Mi-26's & Il-76's (An-24 would make a good whiff), as well as transport aircraft such as the Yak-42 to ferry personnel around in a hurry.  Be-200's act as waterbombers, they have smaller helicopters to such as the Bo-105 for casevac.

There were plans for a SAR variants of Ekranoplans that would probably have equipped EMERCOM.  The Spasatel was a SAR version of the Lun which would have been able to transport up to 500 personnel quickly, as well as carrying equipment piggyback or on it's wings such as a mini-sub.  Another plan was to ferry Orlyonok WIG's on the back of An-225's, which would be launched when in range.  As close as it gets to Thunderbirds!

There have also been plans to form an International version of EMERCOM under the UN, but this has unfortunately never come off.  Again, pretty much a real world International Rescue.