Marie Marvingt was a French athlete, mountaineer, aviator, and journalist. She won numerous prizes for her sporting achievements including those of swimming, cycling, mountain climbing, winter sports, ballooning, flying, riding, gymnastics, athletics, rifle shooting, and fencing. She was the first woman to climb many of the peaks in the French and Swiss Alps. She was a record-breaking balloonist, an aviator, and during World War I she became the first female combat pilot. She was also a qualified surgical nurse, was the first trained and certified flight nurse in the world, and worked for the establishment of air ambulance services throughout the world. In 1903 M. Château de Thierry de Beaumanoir named her the fiancée of danger, which newspapers used to describe her for the rest of her life. It is also included on the commemorative plaque on the façade of the house where she lived at 8 Place de la Carrière, Nancy.
Marie Marvingt in her Deperdussin aeroplane, 1912
Émile Friant's drawing of Marie Marvingt and her proposed air ambulance, 1914
Air medical services are the use of aircraft, including both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters to provide various kinds of medical care, especially prehospital, emergency and critical care to patients during aeromedical evacuation and rescue operations.
A Sécurité Civile EC145 helicopter conducts rescues operations for the French Minister of the Interior
Sequence image of mountain take-off by an Agusta A109 SP Grand "Da Vinci" helicopter from Rega air rescue service
A Eurocopter EC 145 of Switzerland's Rega air rescue service
Air ambulances often employ high-visibility colour schemes, like Ontario's distinctive ORNGE helicopters. An ORNGE AgustaWestland AW139 is shown with the Toronto skyline in the background.