Earlier last month a charity which provides emergency medical services invested in an important new asset.

The Devon Air Ambulance Trust took an “exciting” new step in their development by purchasing a new helicopter.

A service which has been operational for 26 years, Devon’s Air Ambulance prides itself on being a charity committed to “providing the very best patient care and ensuring the service continues to grow and improve.”

On August 16, the charity purchased a new state of the art Airbus H145 helicopter, which will be on duty from the services Exeter airbase from mid-2020.

Heléna Holt, CEO of Devon Air Ambulance said: “As our main consideration is always to provide the very best care to our patients, this has been paramount as we have looked at what new helicopters are available. We feel that the H145 is perfect for our current and future needs. The H145 has significantly more accessible cabin space than our current EC135’s and this extra size gives us greater capacity and flexibility as we continue to enhance the service we can offer to our patients.”

The existing helicopter which is already ‘night flight ready’ and operates up until midnight everyday will replaces the older aircraft, currently flying from the services and north Devon airbase near Umberleigh.

Heléna Holt said: “We aim to replace our helicopter, on average every ten years. We have undertaken extensive research into what would be the best helicopter to meet the current, and future, operational needs.”

The new aircraft will cost in the region of €8.5m, but this will be offset by the onward sale of the older helicopter, G-DVAA.

Ian Payne, flight operations director for Devon Air Ambulance added: “We are looking forward to welcoming the H145, registration G-DAAS in 2020.”

Airbus Helicopters will be providing the charity with updates and photos throughout the build of G-DAAS and the charity plans to share this with all of the supporters through social media.