Orbis International - The ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital

The ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital

The ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital is a DC-10-10 model, and was the second DC-10 aircraft built, in 1970. It was used as a test aircraft by McDonnell Douglas, and then was acquired for passenger service by Laker Airways. It then passed through several hands before its acquisition by Orbis in 1992 for $14 million, which registered it as N220AU.

Conversion of the aircraft took 18 months and cost a further $15 million. The work was performed by Mobile Aerospace Engineering, Inc. in Mobile, Alabama. It was re-launched on May 7, 1994, and its first operational mission was to Beijing, China on July 23, 1994.

In addition to the flight deck, the aircraft contains (from forward to aft) a classroom, an audio-visual room, a laser treatment room, an operating room, a recovery room, and farthest aft, the communications center. The operating room was placed in the center of the aircraft in order to be the most stable location in case of bad weather at the location. The classroom accommodates 48 students, generally host-country ophthalmologists, who can watch surgery as it is performed in the operating room. The classroom is also used for lectures and discussions by Orbis teaching staff.

Inside the audio-visual room are the controls for the 16 cameras, eight microphones and 54 television monitors. These permit viewing of surgery in the classroom and elsewhere on and off the aircraft. Surgical procedures are recorded, edited and duplicated on board so that a record of the procedures taught during each program can be donated to the host-country ophthalmic community.

The laser treatment room contains laser-based diagnostic tools and laboratory stations for use with animal-eye surgical practice training.

The lower deck (belly) of the aircraft contains an equipment laboratory and technical center where Orbis biomedical engineers teach host-country technicians how to maintain and repair ophthalmological equipment.

On April 7, 2008, ORBIS announced it would replace its current DC-10 Flying Eye Hospital with a DC-10 Series 30 freighter. United Airlines, with the support of FedEx, is donating the airplane to Orbis. The $2 million donation is based on the plane’s estimated value and is being funded equally by United and FedEx.

On August 8, 2011, Fedex announced that it would donate one of its MD-10-30Fs to ORBIS to replace its DC-10-10. The new MD-10 will feature a modular hospital suite, the first time these units will have been used on an aircraft.