For many of us, flying is a pleasant experience. All you have to do is get on the plane, sit in your place, put your favorite music on, and enjoy the scenery. But for other people, it's a bit trickier. And I'm talking here about people with disabilities, the ones who have to travel in a wheelchair.
John Morris is a passionate traveler, and before an accident in 2012, he flew to all destinations in the world - sometimes for no particular reason, only for the sheer pleasure of exploring the world by plane. After the cruel event that sent him in a wheelchair, he refused to give up on his hobby, so he started looking for solutions for people like him, who want to enjoy the same pleasant flight as everybody else. This is how his blog was born, a place where John writes about the various situations that wheelchair passengers face.
In March 2021, Disability Horizons wrote something titled: "Flying as a wheelchair user: it’s time for airlines to listen and make changes," along with a descriptive study made by AbleMove and Flying Disabled on 336 wheelchair users, in order to help them understand the significant concerns wheelchair customers have when traveling by air.
Having asked both powered (65%) and manual wheelchair (35%) users in the U.S., the UK, Europe, Asia, and Africa, the biggest concerns that have arisen were: wheelchairs being lost or damaged, toileting at airports, and onboard the aircraft, transferring on and off the aircraft, seating in the cabin, boarding and disembarking processes, carriage of medical equipment. Lately, more and more companies in the aerospace industry are turning their attention toward all kinds of people and their needs.
Collins Aerospace, with the help of researchers and students at the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) at Wichita State University, has finally come up with a revolutionary idea for people with disabilities, giving them the power to use their own wheelchairs while traveling on board.
The novelty comes from the Fly Your Wheels Suite design, a system that allows the left closet near the front door of a single-aisle aircraft to be transformed, in a single move, into a free space where passengers with their own wheelchairs can choose their seating orientation, both forward and rear-facing. When not used for this purpose, the suite may return as being a functional closet or even an area where the crew can relax.
Fly Your Wheels is simply an option, not affecting the cabin configuration, but is adding extra passengers to the aircraft’s load. When the system is in use, the balance of the aircraft is restored by two forward upper monument stowage spaces, known as bustles, providing an equivalent amount of storage as an unmodified closet.
Designed by NIAR researchers and students in the Advanced Virtual Engineering and Test Labs (AVET), the integrated system is safe and reliable, meeting FAA and other federal guidelines, allowing passengers with disabilities to board and deplane the aircraft independently as in other public transits systems. The working team was encouraged at the beginning of this year by international recognition and nomination received at the Crystal Cabin Awards 2022.
This new idea of taking into account the needs of less fortunate people brings equity to the fore: "Helping enable air travel for passengers of all mobilities is an imperative for the entire air travel industry and one we are eager to continue collaborating on with our partners,” said Luis Gomez, virtual engineering manager for NIAR.
Collins Aerospace was one of the winners at the Crystal Cabin Awards 2022, held this week in Hamburg, Germany.
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