<P> Along with motorised flight, another new technology was being developed that could replace the complicated means of communication by telegraph . Together with Alfred Traeger, Flynn began experiments with radio in the mid-1920s to enable remote outposts to contact a centralised medical base . The pedal radio was the first result of this collaboration . These were distributed gradually to stations, missions and other human residences around Cloncurry, the base site for a 50 - watt transmitter . </P> <P> Experimental aerial medical services commenced in 1926 and an injured miner was transported by air from Mount Isa to Cloncurry in November 1927 . </P> <P> By 1928, Flynn had gathered sufficient funds through fundraising activities to launch the experiment of the AMS on 15 May . Its supporters included industrialist HV McKay, medical doctor George Simpson, and Hudson Fysh, one of the founders of Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services, the company which would go on to become Qantas . Qantas supplied the first aircraft to the fledgling organisation, VH - UER a De Havilland DH. 50, dubbed "Victory". On 17 May 1928, two days after inception, the service's first official flight piloted by Arthur Affleck departed from Cloncurry, 85 miles to Julia Creek in Central Queensland, where the plane was met by over 100 people at the airstrip . Qantas charged two shillings per mile for use of the Victory during the first year of the project . </P> <P> Within the first year of operations, the service flew approximately 20,000 miles in 50 flights, becoming the first comprehensive air ambulance service in the world . The service persisted through some very tough first few years, dealing with postwar Australia and the Great Depression of the 1930s . During its first few decades the service relied heavily on community fundraising, volunteer support and donations . Nowadays, the service is supported by the Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments, but still relies heavily on fundraising and donations from the community to purchase and medically equip its aircraft, and to finance other major capital initiatives . Until the 1960s the service predominantly hired aircraft, pilots and service technicians from contractors . After this point, the service moved on to purchasing its own equipment and employing its own pilots and mechanics . </P>

When did the royal flying doctor service start