It's the dawn of a new era for UMass Memorial's Life Flight team.

Their newest helicopter is more spacious than their previous one, and will allow them to better service the area.

"We can just do a lot more in terms of equipment inside and just making sure we're just keeping up with the medical needs of our patients. As that gets more complicated, our helicopter is capable. That means we can take care of more patients and do the right thing for people," Dr. John Broach said on Friday.

Spectrum News 1 got the chance to be in the first group of passengers to ride inside.

The added room will allow UMass Memorial to improve service for the medical center's Heart and Vascular Center, and will give them the ability to transport sick children to and from the UMass Memorial Neonatal and Pediatric ICUs.

Broach says they now have: "Full bypass life support. We can fly patients on that therapy. We can take people on heart balloon pumps, we can take a whole bunch more equipment. We just got a new ultrasound machine that our folks will be using in the helicopter to make more sophisticated diagnoses in the field."

Nick North was on board with us Friday afternoon. 

The flight paramedic says the extra room will help improve their exchanges with patients.

"It allows us better interface with our patients, to be able to interact with them throughout the flight," North said.

UMass Memorial's new helicopter is now ready to be used in the field.​