* The Wiltshire Air Ambulance was launched in April 1990.

* It is entirely dependent on donations from the public to keep flying and the appeal needs to raise £350,000 a year.

* Wiltshire Police pays the running costs of the Explorer helicopter, which is more than £1 million a year.

* The helicopter always flies with a crew of three - a pilot, a police observer and a paramedic.

* The helicopter can reach anywhere in the county within eight minutes.

* The helicopter attends about 1,700 incidents a year of which almost 500 are ambulance related.

* The air ambulance/police helicopter flies from 8am to 3am, seven days a week.

* Wiltshire is one of only two air ambulances in the country that flies at night due to the specialist equipment on board the helicopter.

* In 2007 the Wiltshire Air Ambulance attended 620 incidents, taking 366 people to hospitals. Of the 620 incidents 167 were during the hours of darkness.