The Emivest Aerospace SJ30 on display in the Farnborough Business Aircraft Park promotes its inner chameleon which can turn the jet from VIP transport to air ambulance with a “quick-fit” medical interior in about three hours.

Designed by Lifeport, a medical interior specialist owned by Sikorsky, the SJ30 medevac interior includes a seamless floor, advanced life-support systems and an access ramp for loading patient gurneys into the cabin. The specialized interior is a $196,000 option that is intended for change out with the twinjet’s standard five-passenger executive seating layout.

Plenty of business jets and turboprops can be converted for use as aeromedical transports, but the SJ30 is suited to the role better than most, said Hamish Harding, chairman of Action Aviation, the SJ30’s worldwide distributor. “When a patient is in need of an air ambulance, they are already experiencing a high level of stress and anxiety,” he said. “The SJ30, with its ability to maintain sea-level cabin pressure to 41,000 feet, provides the ideal comfortable environment” for long-range missions.

Comfort isn’t the SJ30’s only advantage. The $7 million jet has a top speed of 486 knots, a range of 2,500 nm and excellent fuel economy, meaning it can transport critical-care patients in the shortest time possible over long distances for less cost than other jets in its category. “The cost per mile of the SJ30 as an air ambulance is probably the lowest in the industry due to the low fuel burn per mile and the high cruise speeds,” Harding said.

The SJ30’s specific range– based on nautical miles traveled per pound of fuel burned–is similar to those of the Cessna Citation Mustang and Embraer Phenom 100 very light jets.