The company and the people who work with us.
In 1995, HASELTINE SYSTEMS INC.™, a disability technology company, was created to design products for people with disabilities. The mission of the company is TO IMPROVE THE MOBILITY OF PEOPLE USING WHEELCHAIRS.
The idea to produce a protective container for wheelchairs was a simple one. Several years ago, a colleague, who relies on a wheelchair for her mobility, took a long-awaited trip. She boarded the plane and her chair was put in the cargo hold. When she arrived at her destination she discovered that her wheelchair had been badly damaged. The long-awaited trip was compromised, as she was forced to rely on an unfamiliar wheelchair to get around while awaiting her chair's repair. This situation sounds familiar to many people who use wheelchairs and have avoided traveling because they fear it might happen to them. Damage to wheelchairs is not an uncommon problem. Traveling with a wheelchair or scooter presents significant problems. Chief among these challenges is ensuring that the wheelchair or scooter arrives at its destination as safely. A recent study released by the Paralyzed Veterans Association revealed that up to 50% of those surveyed reported damage to their wheelchair or scooter upon arriving at their destination. This often compromises an entire trip.
Florence Haseltine recruited the late,Mr. George Debush to help design durable protective containers. The Haseltine Flyer™ is a protective case designed to ensure that wheelchairs and scooters arrive at their destinations safely. User-friendly handles, durable materials and stacking capability enable baggage handlers to easily load and unload Flyers from cargo areas. Feedback from service providers who tested the Flyer included: "The Flyer is much easier to handle than an unprotected wheelchair coming off the belt loader." "The strap handles make it easy to grasp;" and " Flyer protected wheelchairs and scooters remained damage-free from drops as high as six feet."
This is a growing industry in the disability community. The size of the disability community is rapidly expanding as our population ages. The community is active and politically sophisticated. In addition, both adults with spinal cord injuries and children with disabilities are becoming the focus of more attention. We hope to continue to interact with this community and develop products to meet their needs.
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Mike Ervin |
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Paul Rendine |
September 1997 :Page 9
Wheelchair "Flyer" Waiting to Take Off
by Mike Ervin
It's happened to everyone who uses a wheelchair and flies with any frequency. You board a plane and give up your chair at the door. You arrive at your destination and your chair is returned looking like a Picasso sculpture. It's twisted and mangled beyond recognition.
It happened to Sandra Welner when she went to Australia in 1995. " I always worry when I travel with my scooter. It gets beaten up, somebody takes it apart who doesn't know what they're doing. They think it's an explosive." This time, when she got her scooter back a lever that adjusts the steering column had been broken off. The scooter was still usable, but just barely, and she had to find a place to repair it. And this wasn't an isolated incident. Once the upholstery of her scooter was torn up. Not just ripped a little, but shredded. "It was barely recognizable. It was really bad." When Welner flies these days, she often takes large sheets of bubble wrap and asks the baggage handlers to wrap up her scooter with care.
But Welner's frightful airline tales prompted her friend Florence Haseltine to do something more. Haseltine thought there ought to be some kind of durable container in which airlines could store wheelchairs during a flight to protect them from damage. " I went to buy [Welner] a container, but there were none [on the market]," Haseltine reports. So she decided to invent one. Haseltine does not have a disability, and package design is not her area of professional expertise - she's a gynecologist. Undeterred, she teamed up with a package designer to create the Haseltine Flyer .
Haseltine's Flyers are made of polyethylene and come in three sizes - one for the folded manual chairs, one for scooters and one for the four-wheel motorized chairs. United, American and Delta airlines all tested the Flyer under actual flight conditions and all gave it enthusiastic reviews, especially after design changes were made in response to their suggestions. ....
Haseltine expected the airlines to be enthusiastic about buying and using Flyers to save money on repairing chairs that become damaged in their care. Flyers cost from $350 to $500 each. Compared to the over $1 million that Delta estimates they spend per year to repair damaged wheelchairs, the Flyer seems to be a cost effective solution. But so far, no airline has purchased even one Flyer for standard use. Instead , the airlines appear ready to keep playing "wheelchair roulette"-- hoping that, despite past experience, no more wheelchairs will be damaged in transit.
"I've run up against a wall, " Haseltine says, noting that even though the major airlines praise the Flyers, " they say... They're not going to use them. " Ron Welding, spokes person for the The Air Transport Association (ATA), says the association doesn't keep track of how much airlines spend annually on customer wheelchair repairs. He does acknowledge, however, that "they have been a troublesome item. " Welding agrees that using the Flyer could reduce the damage rate significantly. "I'm far from an expert, but I think it works well. It's well designed."
Debbie David of American Airlines customer service agrees. "We did have some suggestions for improvements . But overall it worked well." Jake Jacobson of United Airlines baggage operations says of the Flyer test. "We gave them a good run" For the most part, Jacobson adds the Flyer "passed with flying colors." But both David and Welding say it's impractical for the airlines to purchase a large number of Flyers. Says Welding. "It becomes a logistical problem operating a fleet of those." Adds Jacobson, "Where are you going to put them? Can you promise them to everyone? How many do you get? It becomes very difficult."
The manner in which the United and American tests were conducted did not address logistical questions like storage of how to get Flyers back to the cities from which they originated. In both cases, only the Flyer for the folded manual chair was tested, using chairs belonging to the airlines. The Flyers used for testing were perpetually transferred from flight to flight, never staying in an airport long enough to be stored. But Haseltine points out that it's even more impractical to expect passengers with wheelchairs to supply their own Flyer. They are much to cumbersome to take along on a trip.
David suggests that rental car companies could be involved in the scenario. Passengers could rent a Flyer at one airport and leave it at the next. But Welner thinks the onus to provide Flyers should be on the airlines. She thinks the airlines could purchase some and implement their use slowly, perhaps by making them available on a reservation basis. "If I call ahead and reserve one, I get one," she suggests, "just like I reserve a special meal."
United's Jacobson has another idea. "Maybe we could try something market-specific, like Chicago to Tampa, and see how it works."
Daily Times:
November 26, 1997
by Paul Rendine
Device Keeps Wheelchair Safe.
It has happened to many wheelchair travelers who fly with any frequency. You board your plane, you give up your wheelchair at the plane's door and watch while it is passed down to a ground maintenance person who deposits it into the plane's baggage hold, with no apparent safety or security container for it to fit into.
You arrive at your destination to find your wheelchair is returned to you looking just like a soft
Philadelphia pretzel.
When one traveler related how badly mangled her wheelchair was when it was retrieved from the baggage hold at her destination, her friend decided to do something about it. The friend's name is Florence Haseltine.
Haseltine's solution to the problem of mangled wheelchair during airplane-trip baggage hold handling was related in the September 1997 issue of One Step Ahead.
Haseltine thought there ought to be some kind of durable container in which airlines could store wheelchairs to protect them from damage during a flight.
Haseltine tried to purchase such a container for her friend, but was unable to find one. So she decided to invent one.
Haseltine does not have a disability, and package design is not an area of her professional expertise-- she's a gynecologist. Undaunted, though, she teamed up with a package designer to create the Haseltine Flyer. Her Flyer comes in three sizes -- one for folded manual chairs; one for scooters; one for four-wheel motorized chairs.
United, American and Delta Airlines all tested the Flyer under actual flight conditions and all gave it enthusiastic reviews, especially after some design changes were made in response to their suggestions. ....
While Haseltine hoped the airlines would purchases the Flyers to save money on damaged wheelchairs, no airline has purchased even one for standard use, citing "logistical" problems-- although it is estimate by Delta Airline, alone, that they spend $1 million per year in repairing or replacing damaged wheelchairs. The Haseltine Flyer costs between $295 and $675 each,depending on the size of the unit purchased.
Indications are, instead, the airlines appears ready to keep playing "wheelchair roulette"-- hoping that, despite past experience, no more wheelchairs will be damaged in transit.
Meanwhile, if you think might be worthwhile for your wheelchair's safety and you are a frequent flyer; you can contact the Haseltine Systems Corporation.
 Florence P. Haseltine - Ph.D., MD, Chief Executive OfficerDr. Haseltine, the founder of Haseltine Systems Corporation, has a proven track record of success in the biomedical field and is an internationally recognized expert on health issues related to the disabled. The nonprofit organization founded by her, the Society for the Women's Health Research, began in 1988. Dr. Haseltine currently manages a federal program in reproductive biology. Throughout her twenty year career as an obstetrician and gynecologist, Dr. Haseltine has been committed to improving the quality of life for the disabled. She is the senior editor of Reproductive Issues for Persons with Disablities, a book that since its publication in 1990 has been considered a seminal contribution to its field. In 2003, she edited the The Welner's Guide to the Treatment of Women with Disabilities after Dr. Welner's dealth in 2001. Until 1996, Dr. Haseltine was on the staff of the National Rehabilitation Hospital located in Washington, DC. In 1998 she was awarded the Kilby Award for her innovative work. |
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Wallis Blumm - Manager, Marketing and Business Development Mark Chodos - Webmaster Aggressive Industries, Inc. - Manufacturer of the Haseltine Flyer™ |
