Flying hospital 'Orbis'. Child being carried from the hospital plane 'Orbis' after an eye operation. Project Orbis is a US/UK charity that instructs Third World doctors and surgeons in ophthalmolgy (eye medicine). Conditions that are treated by surgeons on board Orbis include cataracts, glaucoma, corneal opacities and retinal problems. The plane is a DC-10, converted to house classrooms, examination rooms and an operating theatre. Although it is primarily a teaching facility, Orbis has treated blindness in more than 23,000 patients in Africa, Asia and the Americas, since its first mission in 1982. Photographed in Krygystan (Kyrgiz Republic) in Central Asia.