Leading Innovation: Farnborough Airshow Partners With Sight Loss Charity Orbis UK
Farnborough International Airshow has announced that its official charity partner for the 2022 Airshow is Orbis UK, the international sight loss charity. The charity is known for its Orbis Flying Eye Hospital, a state-of-the-art ophthalmic training hospital onboard an MD-10 aircraft.
Farnborough Airshow partners with Orbis UK
As the Farnborough International Airshow (FIA) 2022 kicks off today, the event has revealed that its official charity partner for this year is sight loss charity Orbis UK.
Colman Cawe, Director of Fundraising and Communications at Orbis UK, said,
“Being the official charity partner for Farnborough International Airshow (FIA) gives Orbis an incredible opportunity to raise awareness of our work on this global platform. FIA’s ability to convene industry is well known, and we are thrilled they are lending their support to our campaign to bring the Flying Eye Hospital back to the skies, to deliver in-person sight-saving training and care once more.”
Orbis will show off its surgical simulation technology by FundamentalVR and its telemedicine platform, Cybersight. These innovative technologies have enabled Orbis to train more ophthalmic professionals than ever before.
The FundamentalVR demonstration will take place at FIA 2022 stand 3926 in Hall 3 on Monday, July 18th, from 10:00 – 16:00 and Tuesday, July 19th, from 09:00 – 17:30.
Simple Flying is at the Farnborough Airshow this week. For all the latest news from the show click here!
Bringing back to Flying Eye Hospital
It has been 40 years since Orbis launched its unique Flying Eye Hospital, a customized MD-10 that flies to low-to-middle income countries to train new ophthalmologists, nurses, anesthetists, and eye health workers.
Unfortunately, the aircraft hasn’t been active on missions since a November 2019 trip to Ghana. Since then, the plane has been in storage in various locations across the United States.
Features onboard the flying hospital include an operating room, classroom and pre-and post-operative room. Captain Gary Dyson has piloted the MD-10 for the last two decades.
Captain Gary Dyson said,
“In 1982 Orbis became the first organization to put an eye hospital on a plane. It was an audacious idea to fight the injustice of avoidable blindness around the world. Forty years on, we need your donations to help us return to the skies for the first time since the pandemic prevented us from flying. Seeing people having their sight restored is a privilege. Our aircraft traines eye care teams across the world to save and restore sight, and we’d love you to be part of our next success story.”
As Simple Flying reported last month, TP Aerospace has joined forces with Honeywell to support the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital with wheels and brake materials over the next five years.
The current version of the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital is a 49-year-old MD-10 and is the third iteration of the flying hospital. Simple Flying explored the unique Orbis MD-10 in greater detail, noting its history under Trans International Airlines and FedEx before it joined Orbis in 2011.
£40,000 target
Orbis hopes to raise around £40,000 ($47,500) during Farnborough International Airshow 2022, which kicks off on July 18th and runs until July 22nd. Support will go towards getting the Flying Eye Hospital back in the skies after almost three years on the ground.
Cawe added,
“We’d like to thank FIA2022 for this chance to raise £40,000 from the Airshow community, and FundamentalVR for enabling us to showcase our industry-leading surgery simulator on our stand.”
Since its foundation in 1982, Orbis has “supported the establishment and improvement of 76 pediatric eye care centers, 340 dedicated eye care hospitals, 157 vision centers, 33 energy efficient green vision centers and treated millions of people and trained thousands of medics in eye health care worldwide.”
Will you be attending the Farnborough International Airshow 2022 this year? Have you ever spotted the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital on its travels? Let us know in the comments.